“A trillion-dollar Pentagon budget used to be hyperbole,” he writes. “Now it’s almost reality.”
Semler notes that a majority of our military budget goes to private contractors, and that “the Pentagon allows these contractors to overcharge taxpayers on almost everything it buys.”
“The arms industry goes great lengths to keep it this way,” he writes.
“Military contractors fund influential think tanks to give their profit-driven demands a scholarly gloss, retain more lobbyists than Congress has elected officials, and pour tens of millions of dollars into elections.”
Lawmakers who wish to move toward a sensible level of military spending should know two things, says Semler.
First, polls show the public supports a leaner Pentagon budget.
Second, public opinion is not enough. Public pressure is what’s needed. “Introducing a bill that addresses Pentagon excess and working people’s material concerns can help.”
More than anything, he concludes, stopping the continued military buildup “requires a mass movement to overcome the arms industry’s hold over Congress.”
Read the op-ed at TheHill.com.
