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Your Call

60 Minutes investigation exposes weapons contractor price gouging

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss a 60 Minutes investigation that found weapons contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon overcharge the Pentagon on almost everything the Department of Defense buys with taxpayer dollars every year.

Almost half of this year’s largest-ever $842 billion dollar military budget will go to weapons contractors. Five Senators are calling on the Defense Department to launch an investigation into the long history of price gouging.

Guests:

Dr. Heidi Peltier, senior researcher at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and director of programs for the Costs of War project

Bill Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and author of several books, including Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex

Web Resources:

60 Minutes: How the Pentagon falls victim to price gouging by military contractors

The Nation: The Military Industrial Complex Is More Powerful Than Ever

The Nation: The Pentagon’s Irresponsible Spending Is Now Dangerous

Costs of War Project: We Get What We Pay For: The Cycle of Military Spending, Industry Power, and Economic Dependence

Forbes: Is Excessive Pentagon Spending Stealing Our Future?

Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.
Bee Soll is a producer with Your Call at KALW, and a producer, writer, and editor at KCBS Radio in San Francisco. She is a former reporter for Crosscurrents and contributor at KPFA Radio.