Ted Budd: “You can divide this country into two classes of people, not Republican and Democrat but the political class and the rest…”

“You can divide this country into two classes of people, not Republican and Democrat but the political class and the rest of the country. The political class is doing better than ever. Eleven out of 20 of the richest counties in America are in the D.C. metro area. For every dollar the average family in D.C. earns, the average family in Davie County, where I live, earns 55 cents. The political class is alive and doing well for themselves. On the other hand, those who are not oriented to government--doctors, auto mechanics, waitresses, bartenders, factory workers--are still earning exactly what they did 10 years ago. I am not the first person to point this out, but I want to speak about a textbook example of how this dynamic plays out in reality. I am referring to a recently announced $418 million arms deal between the U.S. and Kenya. It is for 12 airplanes that are essentially armed crop dusters. There is only one slight problem with the deal, the defense contractor that was chosen to fulfill the sale doesn't even make these type of airplanes. They have never done it before. In fact, there is an extra $130 million built into this deal to design a whole new airplane. IOMAX USA, a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business in my district, makes these airplanes. They have been doing it for 7 years. They have got 50 of these airplanes in the Middle East. These planes have dropped more than 4,000 bombs on ISIS. They are the only U.S.…”