A common sense solution.

Why is it our government pays 5–10+ times full retail prices for items they purchase in bulk? Why doesn’t the General Services Administration (GSA) negotiate with government contractors and reduce the burden on taxpayers?

We hear a lot these days from certain politicians that we need to cut spending in order to reduce the national deficit. In theory this sounds like a common-sense solution to a long-term problem. But is it really?

Let me be clear. I’m not suggesting the Pentagon cut cost by purchasing less, I’m saying they just need to keep contractors like Lockheed-Martin and TransDigm from gouging taxpayers with inflated pricing.

Any business knows the importance of controlled spending. Reduced spending is one way to improve profits (another being increased pricing). In business, it’s good practice to control your purchasing expense by buying in bulk to reduce cost.

This business model (buying in bulk) allows companies like Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Kroger and countless others to succeed by selling their items at a lower price, relying on higher-volume sales to provide profit.

So why is it our government, specifically the Pentagon, continues to pay not only full retail, but usually 5–10 times full retail prices? We should be paying wholesale prices due to volume purchasing. Obviously part of the problem is that the Defense Department had never been audited until 2017. They failed that audit, then they failed again the next year, and every year after (at least until 2023, when this info was updated).

Here are a few old, and uncomplicated, example’s of government contractor price gouging from the Reagan era in the 1980s.
$640 for a plastic toilet seat
$7,600 coffee makers
$64 for a standard hammer

(the hammer is my personal favorite because at that time you could buy a top of the line hammer in any retail store for $8-$10. In order to hide the real nature of the purchase, the supplier didn’t call it a ‘hammer’, instead, on the purchase order, a hammer was called a ‘MULTI-DIRECTIONAL IMPACT GENERATOR’). An intentional act to deceive the taxpayer.

A few more current examples include:
$10,000 on toilet seat covers for C-17 cargo planes
$435 is now the cost for a standard claw hammer for the Navy
$285 for a single screwdriver
$437 for a tape measure

SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TELL THE GSA ABOUT HOME DEPOT

A 2022 six-month investigation by 60 Minutes revealed NASA used to pay $10,000 for a common oil switch with all of the cabling which was available to the general public for $328 in any normal retail catalog.

In a recent analysis for the Department of Defense the Inspector General caught one contractor, TransDigm, a military parts supplier, overcharging the Pentagon by as much as 3,800% on routine items. Most retail stores succeed with a 200–400% mark up.

I don’t even want to think about the crazy profits involved with our military spending for planes and ships. Obviously our politicians are bought and paid for by these manufacturers, and that needs to be the first fix. We need to stop military contractors from funneling funds and gifts to our politicians via lobbyist.

Listen, I understand we need a strong military to defend our country and other democracies worldwide. But do we need to pay overinflated prices for the items we need? The answer is no. Just negotiate our cost with these contractors and pay a reasonable price.

These contractors behave like the are the only suppliers out there, and in some cases they are, so some may think negotiations are off the table. But the truth is, they need us more than we need them, they will negotiate.

We wouldn’t have to be concerned about cutting the budget if we would just spend the money we have wisely. Personally, I think it would be to our advantage if our government built our own Jets, Weapons, Battleships, etc.

Eliminate the middle man. That’s just good business!