The War Machine Is Booming—And Taxpayers Are Footing the Bill“This isn’t just about jobs,” Hartung told me. “It’s about profit-driven influence that shapes U.S. foreign policy
By Daniel L. Davis This week on Deep Dive, I sat down with William Hartung, one of America’s foremost experts on defense spending and the arms industry, to pull back the curtain on something no one in Washington wants to talk about: how war keeps making a lot of people very rich. We dug into Hartung’s research on the world’s largest weapons contractors—Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing—and how they've raked in hundreds of billions while accountability is nowhere to be found. “This isn’t just about jobs,” Hartung told me. “It’s about profit-driven influence that shapes U.S. foreign policy—and too often pushes us toward unnecessary wars.” I couldn’t agree more. From Ukraine to the Pacific, we’re seeing a blank check mentality when it comes to defense spending—yet no one in Congress seems to ask: what’s the actual strategy? We also tackled how military aid has become a proxy business, with little transparency over where the weapons go—or who gets rich supplying them. “In many cases,” Hartung says, “we’re not even tracking where U.S. weapons end up. That’s a recipe for blowback.” This isn’t an anti-military message—it’s a pro-accountability one. I served 21 years in uniform. I know what it means to fight for something that matters. But I also know when the mission becomes a money pit, it’s time to sound the alarm. Watch the full interview to learn how the war economy really works—and what it’s costing us. You're currently a free subscriber to Daniel Davis Deep Dive. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. © 2025 Daniel L. Davis |