Rubio: Defense Contractors Can Charge Almost Anything They Want and ‘Often’ Raise Prices from Bids and DoD Doesn’t Have an Inventory

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated that due to lack of competition, defense contractors “can virtually almost charge us anything they want.” And even though contractors often raise the price in the middle of development, they get away with it because after they raise the price, “then, if you don’t fund it or you don’t pay for it, then it’s like you’re against national security or national defense.”

Rubio said, “We have a big problem in this country, and it’s not just how the money’s being spent. We actually are struggling to make these things. So, it tells you that, in addition to all this money that’s being poured into the military, we have a military-industrial base that’s completely broken. It’s one of the things that they haven’t even told you, it’s become so concentrated in the hands of four or five providers. There [are] really only three or four companies in the world that do this stuff, and that’s been the case now for years. There’s very little competition on these contracts. So, they can virtually almost charge us anything they want. And the issue about not having the inventory, I actually heard that for the first time about a month and a half ago. I was stunned. … I would say, one of the key things that we need to have an answer to is not simply how the money’s being spent, that’s important and so forth. But are we spending it in the right — [do] our needs for the country in any way reflect how the money’s being spent? Whatever our military strategy is, the spending has to reflect that somehow, and you can’t know that without transparency.”

Host Jesse Watters then asked, “So, if the Chinese float a $100 balloon that’s spying on us and we can’t pop it. But we have a trillion-dollar F-35 plane that doesn’t ever get off the ground, what good is that weapons system doing? Is it just making the defense contractors rich and not keeping us safe?”

Rubio responded, “Yeah, I think it comes down to…they put out a need. We [have] a need for a next-generation fighter. They put out the bid, maybe only one or two companies respond to it, and then you start building it. And oftentimes, in the process of developing it, they’ll come back and say, hey, this is going to cost more than we thought when we put that bid out — when we offered that bid. So, we’re going to have to increase the price. And then, if you don’t fund it or you don’t pay for it, then it’s like you’re against national security or national defense. So, part of it really comes down to the fact there [are] only four or five companies that do this work.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett