Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said on Monday that the United States has built the world's largest military budget around defense contracting rather than wartime production capacity, arguing that the conflict in Iran has exposed a dangerous weakness in the Pentagon's industrial base.
Scaramucci Says Contracts Drive Defense Spending
"The world's largest military budget has produced an industrial base that cannot sustain a serious war," Scaramucci wrote on X. "How is that possible? Because the system is not designed to produce military capability. It is designed to produce contracts. The five largest defense contractors employ roughly a thousand lobbyists in Washington."
Scaramucci said major contractors spread suppliers across "forty-five states deliberately," making it politically difficult for senators to cancel weapons programs without hurting local jobs. "The current leadership will keep fiddling on this as they see our apathy as permission," he wrote.
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