Jess Battison
A US representative has absolutely gone in on the military for their interesting spending choices, which includes quite a lot being spent on Viagra and Alaskan king crab.
Progressive Summer Lee slammed these whopping budgets during a hearing last Wednesday (12 July) as Congress gears up for voting on another America defense package.
But the Pittsburgh rep brought up just what is apparently going on with the purchases that have been made within the country’s system.
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Lee went straight in at John Tenaglia, a principal director at the Department of Defense, as she brought up: “How much on average does the military spend on Viagra each year?”
He responded: “I don’t have that figure.”
The rep was, of course, stocked up on the numbers herself as she quickly quipped the mega amount: “About $41.6 million.”
She went on to say: “Do you know how many bridges in my district of Pittsburgh could be repaired with that amount? "About two, the rebuilding of the Fern Hollow Bridge – which of course collapsed the day President Biden happened to be coming to Pittsburgh – cost about $25.3million to rebuild.”
So that’s less than 2/3 of the Department of Defense’s reported spend on the erectile dysfunction pill to repair the bridge.
But that's not all as there’s also budget for them to dine lavishly, according to Lee.
“How much did the Department of Defense spend on Snow Crab and Alaskan King Crab in 2018?” she said.
Tenaglia again didn’t ‘have that amount’, but the Pittsburgh rep was ready.
“According to Open the Books, it was $2.3 million. Do you know how much the Pittsburgh City Council spends each year serving the county’s unhoused population?”
Lee then revealed that they only spend about half, at $1.2 million, and they’re ‘certainly not being served Alaska king crabs’.
She also went on to claim that the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act’s authorised amount for shipbuilding ($32.6billion) could provide school lunches for all of the ‘hungry children in America’ and ‘then some’.
“The school lunch program cost $28.7billion in 2022,” Lee added.
Lee also claimed the F-35 Joint Program’s estimated cost to the Federal Government is $1.7 trillion which is ‘enough to completely eradicate student loan debt’.
She also pulled up the Government Accountability Office’s finding that between May 2018 and October 2022 alone, about one million F-35 spare parts worth $85 million ‘were quote ‘lost’.
Lee simply said: “Losing millions of dollars in assets is unacceptable.”
In response, Tengalia said that the Pentagon is taking steps to address this issue by improving the 'clauses' and the terms and conditions of those contracts.