April 15, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  When people are struggling to pay the bills and the country is poised on the brink of an unprecedented recession it’s fair to ask some hard questions. Some of these hard questions have actually been asked for decades, but have simply been ignored or repurposed as applause lines about America First. 

But a pressing crisis like the current pandemic and economic implosion is causing some of these hard questions to finally be heard, such as: Why should corporate and arms industry profits and business strategies be put above American national interest? And more specific ones, like: Why should Washington ship troops, weapons and missile defense systems abroad to protect Saudi oilfields, when the kingdom’s current oil production policy is devastating oilfields in the United States? 

Even dedicated Iran hawks and Riyadh loyalists like Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota are beginning to ask just that. Now that hundreds of thousands of jobs are up in the air in his state because of the cynical actions of a supposed ally, the practice of mindlessly backing the Saudis’ war in Yemen or going on about necessary alliances and massive weapons deals just won’t cut it. 

Although questions do occasionally come up about the U.S. arms industry selling weapons to regimes that torture children and routinely commit human rights abuses, the general thinking of the Blob is that the arms industry is a staple of the U.S. economy and lifeblood for its foreign influence and leverage. When in doubt, Raytheon can just celebrate transgender people by signing a “GLBTA Ally Wall,” or build a bigger float for the pride parade to keep K Street smiling. 

Lawsuits can be handled privately, and blacklisted countries are just future markets. Tax breaks are the price the arms industry charges for keeping their business in your state, and the Defense Department doesn’t need to know the real price of military technology, really. They have endless money anyway, right? As an added bonus, defense contractors make sure to leave behind some nice presents too, like mountains of toxic waste.

For decades America’s corporate right and corporate left seems to have converged around the belief that welfare is bad—except when it goes to the military industrial complex and too-big-to-fail banks.