Defense spending tied to ‘revolving door’

Richard York, Las Vegas

Saturday, April 30, 2011 | 2:04 a.m.

Regarding Stan Broselow’s Friday letter to the editor, headlined “Our military spending is out of control”: After spending 52 years in Defense Department jobs at almost every level I have a few opinions.

First, the U.S. “defense” is tied to the “revolving door,” where members of Congress, their staff, Defense Department civil servants and ranking military officers serve their time working for the government and then take jobs with contractors — the revolving door. Officials lobby for defense contracts for their new employers — often for programs that are expensive and wasteful, including contracts that now privatize war. Those officials being lobbied often have standing job offers when they leave office — an inherent conflict of interest.

Moreover, corrupt politicians accept large campaign contributions from defense contractors before taking employment with them. The bottom line is that defense contractors use their power and money for corporate profit at taxpayer expense. Recently, 27 Republican senators defended this practice in a letter to President Barack Obama, noting the “First Amendment rights of individuals to contribute to political causes or candidates of their choice.” They will stop at nothing to pauperize the middle class!

Excessive military expenditure is based upon a corrupt system that hurts the U.S. economy and leads to the use of these weapons of war — “putting kinetic energy on targets.” Let’s put true national defense back into the Defense Department and cut the military budget to levels we can afford. Let’s put some kinetic energy on corruption.