For the first time, the Pentagon budget topped $1 trillion and private contractors now receive more than half of all the tax dollars flowing to the Pentagon. Few have profited from this privatization of the U.S. military more than the CEOs of Pentagon contractors. Many servicemembers live in appalling housing conditions, while military-industrial contractors’ profits soar and their CEOs live in luxury. A July 2026 Senate investigation, meanwhile, revealed dangerous living conditions at military bases in Georgia, including “reports of lead exposure affecting newborn health, severe mold contamination leading to emergency room visits, flooding in living areas, and more.” Wartime environments have been no better, as evidenced by the deplorable conditions — including food shortages and inoperable plumbing — during the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln’s extended deployment near Iran ... ultimately led multiple sailors to attempt to jump overboard. The top Pentagon contractors’ revenues and stock prices also skyrocketed as they’ve begun to devour an ever-larger share of the military budget. They converted their revenue from the military into line-items on their own budgets that do nothing to improve U.S. national security. They hired armies of lobbyists that now outnumber all members of Congress by a nearly two-to-one margin; billions of dollars in stock buybacks; and, of-course, CEO compensation packages on par with those of NFL quarterbacks. As research by William Hartung and Stephen Semler for Brown’s Costs of War Project showed, 54% of the Pentagon’s annual spending now goes to private contractors — up from 41% in the 1990s.