Radioactivity with Rob Lorei
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Intro:
On Radioactivity today we’ll look at one area of government spending which gets little scrutiny. For several years now President Trump has claimed that he “rebuilt” the US military- implying that it had been underfunded during the Obama years. In his first year in office President Trump claimed the US military had been “depleted” under President Obama. (Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-budget/trump-seeks-historic-u-s-military-spending-boost-domestic-cuts-idUSKBN1661R2
US military spending (in recent times) actually peaked in 2011 under President Obama when you use dollars adjusted for inflation.
Our guest is Mandy Smithberger, the director of the Center for Defense Information at the Project On Government Oversight. In a recent article written for the progressive website TomDispatch (http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176653/
She makes the case that millions in recent military spending has been wasted and that neither political party conducts enough oversight of wasteful spending. She points out the Pentagon has close ties to private military manufacturing and contracting firms, creating a revolving door between companies that profit from war and the government agencies responsible for oversight of those companies.
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