It’s Time to Cut Pentagon Waste: Our New Ad
Last Updated on December 13, 2012.
It’s time to play offense on reining in the Pentagon’s bloated budget. Today, with coalition member USAction, we’re launching a television ad highlighting some of the most outrageously wasteful spending at the Pentagon and holding accountable the politicians who support it. Our television ad – which you can view here – takes on the CEOs of Pentagon contractors who use our tax dollars to pay themselves tens of millions of dollars a year, the type of pay that makes even a Wall Street banker blush. But most importantly, our ad holds accountable politicians who would cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to keep shoveling money into the Pentagon.
Our ad holds Senator Kelly Ayotte accountable.
In her first two years in the Senate, Sen. Ayotte has quickly become a leading voice on national security issues in the Republican Party. And while she could have used that role to promote the type of reshaping and savings that security experts agree is needed at the Pentagon, she has instead become a vocal defender of the Pentagon’s contractors and their wasteful ways.
Earlier this year, Sen. Ayotte used pending Pentagon cuts as an excuse to go on a national tour with Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham protecting Pentagon pork. As we said at the time, these scare tactics and similar ones from the CEOs of Pentagon contractors had nothing to do with keeping America safe and everything to do with protecting record levels of spending at the Pentagon.
Over the past several months, it has only gotten worse. As Congress struggles with ongoing budget battles and the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’, some in Congress, like Kelly Ayotte, have decided that we should be slashing programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid so that we can keep the cash flowing at the Pentagon. Meanwhile, Pentagon contractors have responded by upping their lobbying budgets, campaign contributions, and renewing threats of layoffs in a bid to protect their profits. In fact, it seems the only thing Pentagon contractors won’t do is spend less of our tax dollars padding their CEOs paychecks.
Senator Ayotte has chosen to stand with Pentagon contractors and their fat cat CEOs, not the people of New Hampshire. That’s why we’re up here in New Hampshire today joining our coalition member USAction to hold her accountable. But this ad is just the beginning. It’s time to hold all of our elected officials responsible for the choices they make. When they are responsible stewards of our tax dollars, when they fight to cut wasteful spending at the Pentagon and protect vital programs like Social Security, and Medicaid, and when they work for us and not CEOs and lobbyists, then we should celebrate and thank them. But when they choose a different path – when they choose to be like Senator Ayotte – then we must hold them accountable.
We hope you’ll join us as in this fight.
December 13, 2012