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1. Jesse is talking about Transdigm, the Martin Shkreli of defense contractors. Transdigm buys sole source makers of parts for old airplanes used by the Pentagon, and increases prices by ten times. It's a total scam. And @RepMcGovern is right now helping Transdigm in Congress. https://twitter.com/eisingerj/status/1304768650860204033
2. The way Transdigm gouges the Pentagon is by calling its products 'commercial.' If a spare part is commercial, as opposed to a military-specific part, then the contracting officer can't ask for cost information. That sounds reasonable. For example a pencil is a pencil.
3. The problem is, because of changes in contracting law in the 1990s (thank you Bill Clinton!) contractors now characterize items they sell to DoD as “commercial” – even large parts of weapons systems. So the the gov't can't negotiate when there's only one seller of a product.
4. Transdigm is the master of this loophole. The Pentagon Inspector General found the the DoD paid excess profits up to 4,451 percent on 46 of 47 spare parts sold by Transdigm. Richard Loeb wrote a paper on this commercial items exception. https://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Working-Paper-Series-on-Corporate-Power_4.pdf
5. The fix is simple. Return the definition of commercial item back to what it should mean - if it's sold in large quantities outside the Dod. @TimRyan actually had an amendment to do that last year for the National Defense Authorization Act. But it was ruled out of order.
6. This year, @RepMikeTurner had an amendment that further expands the circumstances when defense items acquired on a sole source basis are considered “commercial.” This one was not ruled out of order by @RepMcGovern. 
https://repcloakroom.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402862
https://repcloakroom.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402862
7. @RepMikeTurner is the dumbass Ohio Congressman caught for spending his campaign money on lavish hotels and meals. How tacky and careless do you have to be to get caught for corruption in 2020? https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-congressman-spent-70k-campaign-232000290.html
8. 8. Turner's amendment isn't in law yet. The House passed its version of the bill authorizing the Pentagon, and the Senate passed its version. The House and Senate will have to sit down and reconcile their bills. So it could still be pulled out.
9. @RepMcGovern sees himself as a progressive Democrat but his real power is as Chairman of the House Rules Committee, which determines what gets voted on and what doesn't. With his real power he chose to help a Republican boost the fortunes of a company dedicated to stealing.
10. What's further outrageous is that the Congressional Oversight Committee held a hearing specifically *on Transdigm's transgressions.* Yet here we have the head of the Rules Committee, an ostensible progressive Democrat, quietly helping Transdigm steal. https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/committee-held-hearing-on-defense-contractor-s-excess-profits
11. Of course Transdigm, like Martin Shkreli, is just the tackiest villain. The commercial items exception is used by all the big guys. If you want to know more... https://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Working-Paper-Series-on-Corporate-Power_4.pdf
12. And if you want to know more about Transdigm, read @zachdcarter's piece from a few years ago on how @RoKhanna took them on. Or read @ddayen's book Monopolized. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/defense-contractor-monopoly-transdigm-mick-mulvaney_us_58d2f8dae4b0b22b0d19ad2a
