US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was grilled over a bag of bushings Thursday on Capitol Hill and it didn’t go well for the Biden administration official.
U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) held up a bag of bushings that would reportedly cost you about $100 and asked Kendall to guess how much the Air Force paid for them.
“This, Mr. Secretary, is a bag of bushings,” the GOP lawmaker explained. “This bag of bushings is stamped out by machinists. Don’t need a high school diploma. Not anything high-tech about this. All of this bag is compliant with the FAA specifications. How much do you think the Air Force pays for this bag of bushings?
“I don’t know, congressman,” the clueless secretary replied, prompting Waltz to inform him, “$90,000.”
Waltz: How much do you think the Air Force pays for this bag of bushings? pic.twitter.com/3OWQUKiC08
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) April 19, 2024
“This is a $90,000 bag of bushings that you need for any jet turbine engine just to operate,” Waltz explained. “So the exorbitant cost due to DoD only buying commercial parts from the OEMs (original equipment manufacturer), which is essentially sole source, is literally driving us out of business. The interest on our debt alone is now exceeding for the first time in American history the entire Defense budget. We can’t afford it anymore.”
With prices like that, is there any wonder the military-industrial complex is so powerful in America?
The US Air Force is paying $90,000 for a bag of Bushings that normally costs well under $100
Pretty insane how the taxpayer is ripped off by the MIC. pic.twitter.com/lwLjKHMGF2
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) April 18, 2024
Here’s a quick sampling of other responses to the story, as seen on X:
Remember this the next time you hear the talking point that US spends more on defense than all its competitors combined.
The amount we Americans spend on defense means nothing. It’s 99% inflated.
— BTPanda (@BowtiedPandaBr) April 18, 2024
Reminds me of the movie Independence Day… “You don’t actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?”
— Natascha Gielnik (@NataschaMG) April 18, 2024
This is very representative of the corruption that exists in the West… and will be the reason for his downfall.
— Victor (@artistloveart) April 18, 2024
usually the huge added cost is associated with the testing of the materials and traceability of all materials and sources + qualification tests of the item at expensive labs using expensive equipment, and likely highly refined special materials and coatings in use for this…
— andy (@1a1n1d1y) April 18, 2024
60 minutes ran a piece on this same thing in the 80’s. The 80’s. This goes on with every administration and never changes no matter who you vote for.
— Buksterlin (@andy_buksterlin) April 18, 2024
By design.
That leaves $89k for unofficial projects.
— Town Square (@XTownSquareX) April 18, 2024
Ah, but then so many of our Congressmen and women own stock in those defense contractors right? Nothing to see here folks.
— Jan Vanderveer (@vanderveer_jan) April 18, 2024
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Tom Tillison
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://americanwirenews.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.