Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
The upshot, among other things, was that the state government in Olympia felt forced to give Boeing a package of tax incentives worth $8.7bn to ensure that it built its latest liner in the state.
See more at: EU rules can help stop us caving into the demands of multinationals - Independent.ie
In the carefully scripted exercises, interceptors of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, were launched from underground silos to pursue mock enemy warheads high above the Pacific. The interceptors failed to destroy their targets in six of the 11 tests -- a record that has prompted independent experts to conclude the system cannot be relied on to foil a nuclear strike by North Korea or Iran. Yet over that same time span, Boeing Co., the Pentagon's prime contractor for GMD, collected nearly $2 billion in performance bonuses for a job well done -- Boeing received a total of more than $21 billion. The cumulative total of bonuses paid to Boeing has not been made public before. The Times obtained details about the payments through a lawsuit it filed against the Defense Department under the Freedom of Information Act.
A Times investigation also found that the criteria for the yearly bonuses were changed at some point to de-emphasize the importance of test results that demonstrate the system's ability to intercept and destroy incoming warheads. Early on, Boeing's contract specified that bonuses would be based primarily on "hit to kill success" in flight tests. In later years, the words "hit to kill" were removed in favor of more generally phrased benchmarks, contract documents show. L. David Montague, co-chair of a National Academy of Sciences panel that documented shortcomings with GMD, called the $2 billion in bonuses "mind-boggling," given the system's performance. Montague, a former president of missile systems for Lockheed Corp., said the bonuses suggest that the Missile Defense Agency, the arm of the Pentagon that oversees GMD, is a "rogue organization" in need of strict supervision. The newspaper also reviewed Boeing-related contract documents obtained independently of the lawsuit.
A Ground-based Midcourse Defense launch.
A spokesman for the missile agency, Chris Johnson, said that despite the GMD system's record in flight tests, Boeing had "earned" its bonuses "based on the criteria specified in the contract." He said the payments "complied with all appropriate acquisition regulations." "These types of contracts allow regular and consistent evaluation by the government, and fees are paid only when companies meet clearly defined targets," Johnson said in an emailed statement. A spokesman for Boeing, Dexter Q. Henson, referred questions about the bonuses to the missile agency while defending the company's work on GMD. Boeing "has met contractual requirements and a variety of incentives across a wide range of program objectives," Henson said by email. "As the lead contractor, we have partnered with the Missile Defense Agency in the development and operation of the only homeland defense system that can defeat long range missile attacks," he said.
In the event of an attack, interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County, Calif., and Fort Greely, Alaska, would burst from their silos and begin a fiery ascent toward the upper atmosphere. The interceptors are multistage rockets, each with a 5-foot-long "kill vehicle" at its tip. The kill vehicle is designed to separate from its rocket in space, fly independently at 4 miles per second and crash into an enemy warhead. The GMD system, which became operational in 2004, is intended to thwart a "limited" nuclear strike by a non-superpower. It has cost taxpayers more than $40 billion to date.
Flawed Missile Defense System Generates $2 Billion in Bonuses | Military.com
It is not a right left thing. Both do exactly the same thing. The politicians kowtow to the big corps to get money. It is an old story repeated over and over again.Think about that. The largest, wealthiest, most powerful organizations in the world are on the public dole. Where is the outrage? Back when I was young, people went into a frenzy at the thought of some unemployed person using food stamps to buy liquor or cigarettes. Ronald Reagan famously campaigned against welfare queens. The right has always been obsessed with moochers. But Boeing receives $13 billion in government handouts and everyone yawns, when conservatives should be grabbing their pitchforks.
Where Is The Outrage Over Corporate Welfare - Forbes
Think about that. The largest, wealthiest, most powerful organizations in the world are on the public dole. Where is the outrage? Back when I was young, people went into a frenzy at the thought of some unemployed person using food stamps to buy liquor or cigarettes. Ronald Reagan famously campaigned against welfare queens. The right has always been obsessed with moochers. But Boeing receives $13 billion in government handouts and everyone yawns, when conservatives should be grabbing their pitchforks.
Where Is The Outrage Over Corporate Welfare - Forbes
Think about that. The largest, wealthiest, most powerful organizations in the world are on the public dole.
or think of it as way to help them stay competitive despite the highest most liberal corporate tax in the worldThink of it as an offset against the outrageous union demands and it'll be easier to see why Boeing could afford to keep the work in Washington.
For now.
