Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brought more light and heat to a Congressional Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday.
And more importantly, she connected the issue at hand with why those who wonder "how can we pay for" The Green New Deal and Medicare for All when there is plenty of money in excess profits for defense contractors.
AOC pointed out one example: non-vehicular clutch discs, which cost $32.00 to manufacture and for which the Pentagon pays $1443.00. That's a 4436% profit.
AOC asked the Pentagon contractor, TransDigm CEO Kevin Stein, "Are you aware how many doses of insulin we could get for that?"
"...for the cost of your price-gouging of the public on a non-vehicular clutch disk alone I could have sent 21 kids to college. I could have sent 18 toddlers to free preschool for a year, in the most expensive city in America."
TransDigm manufactures over 220,000 parts. Yahoo Finance:
In his opening statement Stein said "TransDigm did nothing in contravention of the federal acquisition laws and regulations with respect to its pricing."
TransDigm has made several acquisitions in recent years to boost its share of the spare parts market.
After examining 113 Department of Defense contracts the Pentagon's inspector general recommended TransDigm repay $16.1 million in excess profits, the memo said.
