December 5, 2019

By Brian Stetten

The CEO and Chairman of Lockheed Martin is one of the wealthiest women in the country. Her name is Marillyn Hewson, who through taxpayer money spent on “defense,” personally makes around $25 million per year.

She's a corporate welfare queen, living on our American addiction to expensive weapons of war, quite an ignominious contrast to the struggling working poor woman who needs help putting food on the table. Marillyn has a $16 million mansion in San Francisco and a $6 million mansion in McLean, Virginia. She also owns a multi-million dollar yacht.

The Lockheed-Martin lobbyists make sure we stay in a permanent state of war, so the taxpayer money just keeps on paying for more exotic weaponry. The company's market cap is currently $98.86 billion. A May article in The Intercept detailed that defense contractors thrive on conflict.

Also, defense industry lobbyists have insured that when it comes to war, the government's pockets are infinitely deep.

However, when it comes to a disabled widow who might live on the other side of town, we are supposed to say "tough shit" if the widow has trouble putting food on the table. The Republicans blame the victim of our system, the elderly widow, and clamor that she made bad choices, hence her situation is all her fault, right?

Corporate-backed Democrats are cheered on by the corporate media for taking a so-call "bipartisan" approach by agreeing to make further cuts into the social safety net.

Well, let's reflect for a moment on the concept of "bipartisan". One should take note that when ever "bipartisanship" is brought up, usually the weakest among us manage to get shortchanged.

Next, we need to stop considering the notion of "welfare" as a dirty word, or what they refer to in politics as "the third rail." In other words, if one suggested that President Bill Clinton's welfare reform was a failure, that very notion is likely harmful to a political figure's career. Why do I bring this up? To this day, Bill Clinton brags about knocking single mothers off the welfare rolls. However, single mothers that got knocked off the welfare rolls did not generally end up in the workforce. Where did these women end up? Without a community of support and forced into dire straits.

We need to redefine the word "welfare.” After all, you care about the welfare of your own children, right?

CEO and Lockheed Martin President Marillyn Hewson literally are funded by taxpayers. Thanks to taxpayers, she lives the opulent life of the wealthy. Trump gave people like Hewson a nice sizable tax cut. Of course this added a trillion dollars to the deficit and that means our debt will grow at least a trillion dollars a year. But who does our society demonize? Poor people that desperately need help just making sure she they can eat.

Tell me now, who is the real welfare queen? The woman going hungry or Mrs. $25 million per year providing weapons that slaughter people in countries like Yemen, who are clearly not a threat to American citizens.

President Trump, a man endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan and varied Neo-Nazi groups, is a symptom of a sick society.

If it appears that progressive Bernie Sanders may win the Democratic Party's nomination, President Obama has promised that he will speak out against Sanders receiving the nomination. We do not know what Obama would do if Sanders were to actually win the Democratic Party's nomination. However, it looks like the elites would rather risk another four years of Trump, no matter who wins the Democratic presidential nomination, rather than possibly making rich elites pay their fair share of taxes, even ones who amass their fortunes from weapons of war.