Rep. Scholten meets with West Michigan businesses that have US military contracts and claims their function is to promote peace

In Rep. Scholten’s weekly Email newsletter for the week of August 10, the Congresswoman wrote:

Here in West Michigan, we do our part to provide for the common defense! This morning I joined The National Defense Industrial Association for a Congressional Delegation at ADAC Automotive. We were joined by dozens of area businesses that work on supporting our U.S. military, as they work to protect US.

Of course such claims are not supported or verified, since we are all supposed to accept on blind faith that the US military is protecting us. However, there is very little evidence that the US military actually protects people, whether they be US residents or other people around the world.

The fact is that Rep. Scholten met with members of what former US President Dwight Eisenhower referred to as the US Military Industrial Complex. Not only did Eisenhower name the US Military Industrial Complex, he warned us of the dangers that the weapons industry.

The reality is that Rep. Scholten was meeting with West Michigan military contractors, companies that are subsidized by taxpayers to manufacture or provide other services to the US military. More accurately, these businesses that have contracts with the US Military are receiving Corporate Welfare.

Now, the only company that Rep. Scholten mentions in her weekly newsletter is ADAC Automotive. Therefore, we don’t know who the other people pictured in the photo or which companies they represent. It is possible that there was someone from GE Aviation Systems, which has US military contracts, one of which is for KC-46A Pegasus aircraft that are being sold to the Israeli government. Perhaps there was someone from Plasan North American, which has a factory in Walker, Michigan, and makes military vehicles that are being used in Israel’s genocidal assault on the Palestinians.

Regardless of who was at this meeting with Rep. Scholten, the point is that she has consistently voted for the annual massive US Military budget, which results in US taxpayers subsidizing these military contractors and those weapons being used to murder people around the world. 

Rep. Scholten does mention that the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) was present at this meeting with local military contractors. The Michigan Chapter of the NDIA is an extension of the Pentagon, where US military leaders work with the private sector to develop and manufacture weaponry and other technology that the US Military wants to develop. In March of 2024, The Right Place Inc., hosted the NDIA in Grand Rapids for an Army Contracting Command Day. 

Of course, those pictured with Rep. Scholten represent just a small fraction of the local businesses that have contracts with the US Military. Here is a fairly updated list of Grand Rapids companies that have had a contract with the US Military between 2000 and 2020.  Again, we all pay for this shit.

Lastly, it is worth noting that Rep. Scholten likes to brag about getting federal dollars for local charitable projects, but she fails to mention that the amount of federal dollars that goes to local military contractors is always more than what small amounts she brags about in her weekly newsletter. Rep. Scholten is doing the very thing that Dr. King warned us all about in 1967, when he said, “ A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”