Defense Industry Cries Foul Over Profit Limits
📰 THE STORY: Mainstream media reports a new Trump-era executive order aims to curb 'excessive profits' made by defense contractors on government contracts, specifically those where costs are not fully defined upfront. The defense industry is allegedly 'flummoxed' and concerned about the impact on innovation and investment. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: This 'flummoxing'
follows decades of documented abuses. In 2011, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan reported up to $60 billion in waste and fraud, much of it due to cost-plus contracts that incentivized overspending. This isn't innovation, it's exploitation. Before that, Eisenhower warned of the 'military-industrial complex' in his 1961 farewell address, specifically cautioning against
its 'unwarranted influence' and the 'danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.' We are living that danger. Double Standard: When a public sector union demands fair wages or healthcare benefits, they are slammed as 'greedy' and 'impediments to economic growth.' Yet, defense contractors, whose profits are guaranteed by taxpayer dollars and whose
products fuel endless wars, are allowed to lament any perceived threat to their 'innovation' (read: profit maximization) without similar critique. The media frames corporate profits as sacrosanct while demonizing any gains for the working class. Follow the Money: The 'innovation' defense is a smokescreen. According to the Quincy Institute, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and