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Federal subsidies

benefit from this spending spree. Will it be

Introduction

the men and women of our armed forces, as

to corporations

President Clinton and Republican congres-

in the national

After a year of bitter partisan squabbling

sional leaders have claimed? Or will it be such

security sphere

over impeachment, President Clinton and

weapons-making conglomerates as Ray-

the Republican-controlled Congress finally

theon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin? The

should be the

found something they could agree on: a mul-

"Big Three" weapons makers already receive

exception rather

tiyear, multi-billion-dollar increase in Penta-

more than $30 billion per year in Pentagon

than the rule.

gon spending. The only disagreement about

contracts--or one of every four dollars of the

the budget among the major players in

$120 billion per year that the Pentagon

Washington was over how much to increase it.

hands out for everything from rifles to rock-

The president opened the bidding on

ets.2 Those figures could skyrocket if the pro-

January 2, when he used the occasion of his

posed military buildup is approved in any-

first national radio address of 1999 to call for

thing close to its current form.

the largest sustained increase in Pentagon

The details of the Pentagon's own six-year

spending since the Reagan era--$112 billion

budget projections demonstrate that the

over six years. Three days later, the Senate

largest increases will go to arms contractors,

Armed Services Committee upped the ante

not to the personnel of the armed forces.

when John Warner (R-Va.), the new chairman

Spending on weapons procurement, the pot

of that body, joined other senior Republicans

of money that most directly benefits the big

on the committee in urging the Joint Chiefs

companies, is slated to rise by 53 percent

of Staff to seek the larger $150 billion

between now and 2005. Funding will increase

increase that they had outlined in testimony

from $49 billion per year to $75 billion per

to the Senate in September 1998.

year. Spending on personnel is slated to rise

Once the impeachment matter had been

by 22 percent over that same time period--

resolved in the Senate, the bidding continued.

less than half the rate of increase in spending

In mid-February, the Senate rammed through

for big-ticket weapons systems.

a military pay increase that would cost billions

Only a fraction of the increased expendi-

more than the raises already in the Pentagon's

tures for personnel will make it to those peo-

own budget proposal. And in March both the

ple most likely to leave the armed services.

House and the Senate passed bills declaring

Moreover, some of the money for pay increas-

that it is the policy of the United States to

es will go to top-ranking officers, including

deploy a National Missile Defense system--a

admirals and generals, who are already well

commitment that the Congressional Budget

compensated, and to hundreds of thousands

Office has estimated could cost at least $18

of civilian bureaucrats. Those bureaucrats,

billion to $28 billion over the course of the

under the current Pentagon proposal, would

next decade. Meanwhile, Reps. Curt Weldon

get the same 4.4 percent annual increase as

(R-Pa.) and Norman Dicks (D-Wash.) are

would troops, who could potentially be sent

spearheading a coalition of conservative

into conflict.3

Republicans and Democrats from defense-

Before Congress and the public sign off

dependent districts that has pledged to work

on the largest peacetime military buildup

for an increase in the fiscal year 2000 Pentagon

since the Reagan administration, it is appro-

budget. The increase would be $8 billion more

priate to know how much of our military and

than the $12.6 billion increase that the

foreign aid budgets is being spent on corpo-

Clinton administration has already request-

rate welfare for weapons manufacturers. Are

ed.1 Will all of this additional funding result in

all of these subsidies necessary for defending

the country, or are some of them being used

greater security for the nation?

primarily to maintain or expand the profit

With the prospect of large increases in the

margins of the Big Three weapons makers?4

Pentagon budget, it is fair to ask who will

2