Tools of Influence: The Arms Lobby and the Super Committee By William D. Hartung

  

Tools of Influence: The Arms Lobby and the Super Committee

By William D. Hartung

William Hartung, has written a paper analyzing the military-industrial lobby's leverage over the members and staff of the so-called "Super Committee" which has been entrusted with coming up with a plan to right the federal budget.  Since a major part of the spending cuts that must be imposed if there is to be any hope of accomplishing their task are in the defense sector, his findings are important.  They do not bode well in terms of the prospects for intelligent reductions in military outlays.  Hartung has summarized his report, the full text of which can be read at http://www.ciponline.org/research/html/tools-of-influence-arms-lobby-super-committee1, as follows:
The arms industry has a major stake in the deliberations of the budget super committee, which is empowered to propose reductions in military spending. The tools of influence that the arms lobby can bring to bear on the super committee are impressive:

•       In 2010 alone, the industry spent $144 million on lobbying.

•       The arms industry employs over 1,000 lobbyists, nearly two for every member of Congress.

•       The industry contributed $22.6 million to political candidates in the 2009/2010 election cycle alone.

•       In the two most recent election cycles, military contractors contributed over $1.1 million to the 12 members of the budget super committee.

•       Five former super committee staffers now serve as lobbyists for at least one of the nation’s top ten weapons contractors, representing companies like Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. The industry as a whole employs 22 lobbyists who are former staffers of super committee members .

•       The arms industry’s greatest ally is House Armed Services Committee chair Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, who has received over three quarters of a million dollars from the defense industry between 2009 and 2011.

http://www.ciponline.org/research/html/tools-of-influence-arms-lobby-super-committee1