Pro-war Sen. Boxer nabbed defense industry cash

15 Sep, 2013 by John Seiler

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It passes strange that Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Marin County, supports war with Syria. She’s one of the most liberal senators ever. She comes from Marin County, which is even more liberal than San Francisco. She gets most of her support from far-left Democrats, who opposed the war (as do many conservatives and libertarians).

Maybe the answer comes from the campaign contributions she got from the defense industry. Writes Watchdog.org:

This just in: The military-industrial complex is a powerful force in Washington, D.C. politics.

It’s not exactly new information, but the debate over Syria seems to have exposed — once again — the degree to which defense contractors and others standing to profit from the United States launching missiles at a foreign country.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday voted 10-7 in favor of authorizing military action in Syria.  The vote was the first step to a full Senate vote to authorize President Barack Obama’s plan to bomb the war-torn nation.

According to an analysis by MapLight, which tracks lobbying and campaign contributions in Congress, senators who voted in favor of the resolution received, on average, 83 percent more money from defense contractors and other defense interests than senators who voted against the resolution.

The MapLight analysis looked at campaign contributions between 2007 and 2012.

Boxer is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voted for the war — and got $24,500 in defense industry contributions.

As San Francisco hippy crooner Country Joe McDonald warbled back in Vietnam protest days, “There’s plenty of good money to be made, supplying the Army with the tools of the trade.”