Congress Says 'Fix It Yourself' While Big Corps Get Rich
The Intercept reports Congress just stripped a provision from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have allowed the military to repair its own equipment without going back to original manufacturers. This 'quiet' move—tucked into a defense bill totaling $886 billion for 2024 (Source: NDAA 2024)—hands a massive gift to defense contractors. Not only do weapon manufacturers like
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon get billions to build the gear, they now get to charge exorbitant rates to fix it too, while your tax dollars fund a military that can't even change its own oil. This isn't about efficiency; it's about securing future revenue streams for the companies whose lobbyists fill K Street and campaign coffers. One wonders if Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee, who received over $200,000 from defense contractors in the 2022 election cycle (Source: OpenSecrets.org), noticed this provision quietly disappearing. It seems 'national security' increasingly means ensuring corporate profits, not operational readiness or taxpayer savings.