defense industry military ndaa pentagon bipartisan
related: Defense Industry Bloc Defense Contractors Defense Contractors Bloc
Who They Are
The Defense Industry. A redirect node consolidating references to the defense industry political operation. The U.S. defense industry generates $250+ billion annually from government contracts, employs 1.7+ million workers, and maintains the most effective bipartisan lobbying operation in American politics. The industry’s political spending ($50-100M per cycle) is supplementary to its structural power: geographic distribution, employment leverage, and the revolving door between Pentagon, defense companies, and congressional staff.
See Defense Industry Bloc, Defense Contractors, and Defense Contractors Bloc for comprehensive analysis.
Money
The defense industry’s political power is self-reinforcing: defense spending creates jobs in congressional districts; those jobs create political constituencies for continued spending; that spending generates the revenue that funds the industry’s political operation; and the political operation ensures spending never decreases. This virtuous cycle (from the industry’s perspective) has produced 80 consecutive years of defense spending above Depression-era levels and an NDAA that passes with bipartisan supermajorities every year.
Sources
- OpenSecrets: Defense sector (Tier 1)
- DOD: Budget data (Tier 1)
- Ballotpedia: Defense industry (Tier 3)
content-readiness:: ready