Sen. Bernie Sanders blasts defense contractors over soaring costs, vows tougher oversight
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a former Democratic presidential candidate, says he will use his powerful new position atop the Senate Budget Committee to exercise tougher oversight over America’s vast national security establishment, including the private-sector organizations that profit from taxpayer-funded defense contracts.
In an exclusive interview with The Washington Post ahead of a Wednesday budget hearing, Sanders criticized the Pentagon for failing to keep track of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. Citing former president Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warnings about the military industrial complex, he excoriated defense agencies and weapons manufacturers over hundreds of billions of dollars in cost overruns on programs, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. And he said large defense conglomerates, as taxpayer-funded entities, should face the same standard of accountability and transparency as their government counterparts.
“We have a very powerful military industrial complex, and I don’t think they get the scrutiny that they deserve, and I think it’s appropriate to start there,” Sanders said.
He added that the chief executives of the major defense contractors earn close to 100 times more than the secretary of defense “despite the fact that in the case of Lockheed Martin and others, the lion’s share of their revenue comes from the federal government.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bernie-sanders-blasts-defense-contractors-over-soaring-costs-vows-tougher-oversight/ar-BB1gEupl
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