Congressmen Deluzio and Ryan don’t hold back on U.S. defense contractors: “It is a corrupt system”
The U.S. spends hundreds of billions on the defense budget each year, but as U.S. Reps. Deluzio and Ryan explained to John Stewart, “it is a corrupt system.”
Year after year the U.S. Congress approves hundreds of billions of dollars for the defense budget, it is nearly $850 billion in 2025. But there are persistent doubts about whether those funds are being spent wisely and if the American public is getting its money’s worth.
Recently on the Daily Show, U.S. Representatives Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Pat Ryan of New York, both veterans and members of the House Armed Services Committee, spoke with John Stewart about the issue. They explained how the procurement process is “a corrupt system.”
How the American taxpayer is getting “gouged”
Competition is a foundational element of free market capitalism, but when it comes to procuring material for the Defense Department, it’s lacking said Deluzio. He explained that back in the ‘90s that there were 51 prime defense contractors, “there are 5 now.”
Deluzio gave one example, although he said he could go all night, of how the American taxpayer is getting gouged by this lack of competition and proper oversight. “Let’s take the C-17, OK, transport aircraft? Soap dispensers – the report we saw, 7,900% markup on soap dispensers,” he shared.
“So, imagine what happens with everything else,” Deluzio added. “But you multiply – think about the cost that we are all paying for that.”
Stewart light-heartedly quipped, “To be fair. I have flown on a C-17. My hands were never cleaner.”
“The worst episode of Shark Tank ever”
Typically in a capitalist system, investors get a share of the financial benefits that are produced by the output of that investment. Not so in the case of the American taxpayes for the trillions of dollars that the U.S. government gives to contractors.
Ryan shared that two years ago, a bipartisan group of veterans on the Armed Services Committee tried to get some leverage over Lockheed Martin to do a better job with the F-35 fighter jet program, which the New York representative calls “the biggest boondoggle” of his lifetime.
The program’s cost is at least $1.7 trillion and yet the operational readiness of the aircraft is only 30% he explained. “It’s insane,” Ryan said.
The group wanted to push through an amendment that would give ownership of the intellectual property rights to the American taxpayers, instead of Lockheed Martin taking all the benefits.
“We’re paying you an ungodly amount of money. We Americans should own the intellectual property that we’re paying you for,” Ryan explained.
“It’s like the worst episode of Shark Tank ever,” Stewart joked. “I’m asking for a trillion dollars for my company, and you don’t get anything. You get planes that don’t actually work, and you don’t own them.”
DoD’s Acquisition Overhaul Aims To Reform Bid Protests, Analysis Of Alternatives Studies - Defense Daily https://t.co/ZDn3HHiggp
— Defense Daily (@DefenseDaily) November 13, 2025
Intellectual property rights are not only costly but hurt the troops
Deluzio explained that the situation with intellectual property rights and poor contracts “plays out on a bunch of systems.”
“You name it where the troops can’t even fix their own stuff because of these contracts, where it’s gotta be repaired by the company or their subcontractor,” the Pennsylvania representative explained. “It costs the public a lot of money. It hurts readiness for the troops.”
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