On the recordJune 13, 2013
I appreciate the power of the free enterprise system. It is one of the reasons for America's greatness. I know from experience that private businesses do some things better than the government ever could. But over the last couple of decades, the United States has increasingly relied on private contractors to do the work the men and women in our Armed Forces used to do, and they are getting exorbitant salaries to do the same work--in some cases, almost twice the salary of the President of the United States. To the people of West Virginia and to me it doesn't make any sense to pay a defense contractor up to $763,000 a year. That is almost twice as much as our Commander in Chief and almost four times as much as our Secretary of Defense. If we do nothing about this, this figure will automatically rise to $951,000 next year--$951,000. That is almost $1 million a year right in the middle of sequestration when we are cutting everything. With the war in Afghanistan winding down, it is only natural for defense contractors to be looking for new opportunities, and the southern border of our country is one of the places they are eyeing. In fact, the New York Times says some of them are getting ready to demonstrate military grade and long-range camera systems this summer in an effort to secure billion-dollar contracts with Homeland Security.…
