Jeremy Cloward Defies Contractor Corruption in Congress
This morning, the House and Senate are on the verge of announcing a deal in which huge amounts of military spending is approved, not just on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but on huge military boondoggles such as the wasteful C-17 aircraft, an immense cargo plane that the Department of Defense doesn’t even want. The Democrats have created this particular example of military waste, but it’s not fair to only blame the Democrats. The Republicans in Congress did the same kind of thing when they were in power. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have fallen prey to the corrupting influence of gigantic military contracting corporations that can make or break a political career with the contributions they funnel to congressional campaigns and the shadowy world of independent campaign operations supposedly unaffiliated with candidates themselves.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The congressional campaign of Jeremy Cloward proves that.
Jeremy Cloward is running for California’s 10th district seat in the House of Representatives, in a special election so up-in-the-air that the date of the election isn’t even determined yet.
Cloward is not one of those candidates who glides in to office by making promises to powerful interests to maintain the status quo. Cloward is ready to upset the apple cart of corrupt military waste, and he’s got a specific plan for doing it. If elected, within his first 10 days as a member of the House of Representatives, Cloward will introduce a bill to reduce the military budget to just one seventh of its current size.
Does that sound irresponsible? Dangerous? Actually, it isn’t. Even after that reduction in spending, the U.S. military budget would be about 100 billion dollars. We would still be spending nearly twice the amount as the next biggest military budget on Earth – China’s. Spent wisely, that’s more than enough to keep the USA reasonably secure.
Current members of Congress say that’s pie in the sky thinking – and then they vote for unnecessary military pork barrel projects to enrich powerful people back in their home districts. If you’re sick and tired of that kind of thinking, then it’s time to do what you can to support a different kind of leader, and support candidates for Congress like Jeremy Cloward.
Corruption in military expenditures is inherent when there are so few contractors capable of fulfilling the projects. Converting defense labs and research centers into peaceful uses will increase the number of bonafide contractors and address issues of public infrastructure that have been neglected for too long. Converting to renewable energies, decreasing water consumption and addressing issues raised by global warming are priorities that require much more public investment.