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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Pentagon redirected most of its $1 billion in COVID-19 funding to defense contractors
WHY do we STILL not have enough N95 masks? THIS is why:https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/22/covid-funds-pentagon/ (paywall, use incognito)
(Reminder: The Secretary of Defense is a former top lobbyist for Raytheon, a massive US defense contractor)
A $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the countrys supplies of medical equipment has instead been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used to make things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.
The change illustrates how one taxpayer-backed effort to battle the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans, was instead diverted toward patching up long-standing perceived gaps in military supplies.
The Cares Act, which Congress passed earlier this year, gave the Pentagon money to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus. But a few weeks later, the Defense Department began reshaping how it would award the money in a way that represented a major departure from Congresss intent.
The payments were made even though U.S. health officials think major funding gaps in pandemic response still remain. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Senate testimony last week that states desperately need $6 billion to distribute vaccines to Americans early next year. Many U.S. hospitals still face a severe shortage of N95 masks. These are the types of problems that the money was originally intended to address.
This is part and parcel of whether we have budget priorities that actually serve our public safety or whether we have a government that is captured by special interests, said Mandy Smithberger, a defense analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
The change illustrates how one taxpayer-backed effort to battle the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans, was instead diverted toward patching up long-standing perceived gaps in military supplies.
The Cares Act, which Congress passed earlier this year, gave the Pentagon money to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus. But a few weeks later, the Defense Department began reshaping how it would award the money in a way that represented a major departure from Congresss intent.
The payments were made even though U.S. health officials think major funding gaps in pandemic response still remain. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Senate testimony last week that states desperately need $6 billion to distribute vaccines to Americans early next year. Many U.S. hospitals still face a severe shortage of N95 masks. These are the types of problems that the money was originally intended to address.
This is part and parcel of whether we have budget priorities that actually serve our public safety or whether we have a government that is captured by special interests, said Mandy Smithberger, a defense analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
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The Pentagon redirected most of its $1 billion in COVID-19 funding to defense contractors (Original Post)
CousinIT
Sep 2020
OP
dalton99a
(81,426 posts)1. Kick
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)2. Kicking
Tanuki
(14,916 posts)3. Since he diverted billions from the Pentagon budget to fund his idiot racist
wall that he lied and said Mexico would pay for, and is using covid-allocated funds to make up some of the shortfall, isn't this tantamount to laundering covid funds to build the damn wall?
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/805796618/trump-administration-diverts-3-8-billion-in-pentagon-funding-to-border-wall
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)4. Not all of them, I can tell you that.
DoD funding is royally fucked up right now and legitimate mission critical contracts are not getting the program attention and funding they typically get as a matter of routine. It's insane!
2naSalit
(86,502 posts)5. No surprise there.
So who are these contractors, hmm? Any of them named Erik or Prince?