It’s All for Sale

A former defense contractor executive described Washington in four words:

“It’s all for sale.”

He knew because he had participated in the system. Martin Kao, the former CEO of Navatek, pleaded guilty to campaign-finance and loan fraud. Then he began explaining to federal investigators how Washington worked. His company wanted government contracts. So it hired lobbyists, cultivated members of Congress, made political contributions, opened operations in politically useful states and pursued federal appropriations. The taxpayers supplied the money. The politicians controlled access to it. The companies supplied the campaign cash. And after the contract was awarded, the American people still had to hope the company would actually do the work. Federal contracting is full of projects that run over budget, fail to deliver what was promised or are terminated before completion, sometimes after enormous sums have already been obligated or paid. GAO has repeatedly documented major federal projects that are delayed, over budget or fail to deliver intended improvements, and federal agencies reported nearly 40,000 contract terminations in fiscal 2024 alone. Kao told investigators the company’s government work produced no products the military ultimately wanted to buy, according to ProPublica’s reporting.

That is the business model.

According to ProPublica’s investigation, Kao gave federal agents a 50-page account naming lobbyists, congressional staffers and members of Congress involved in what he described as a pay-to-play system. FBI agents reviewed corporate records and emails and found evidence consistent with substantial parts of his account. One of the relationships investigators examined involved Senator Susan Collins of Maine. Navatek wanted federal defense money. Kao and people around the company donated money into Collins’ political orbit. Collins supported federal funding for Navatek projects. ProPublica reports that FBI records showed donations, lobbying activity and federal funding requests repeatedly moving through the same network of people and communications. Collins denies any pay-to-play arrangement, and neither she nor her staff was charged.

And then something even more revealing happened. The FBI agents pursuing the broader corruption investigation were pushed out. The Justice Department’s public-corruption operation was gutted. Agents and prosecutors left or were removed. The investigation died before the government finished answering the question it had begun asking.

That is the story.

Yesterday I wrote that the tax code is the moral code, and that the tax code is for sale.

This story shows that the tax code is only one counter in a much larger store. Private contractors are using our tax money they were granted after bribing our government -- to secure more contracts of our money.

The contractors get rich on our dime, the politicians are paid off to do it -- and frequently the contracted work is never done or is worthless.

And when the institutions responsible for investigating corruption are themselves subject to political control, even accountability becomes part of the transaction. We spend enormous amounts of time arguing about whether Democrats are corrupt or Republicans are corrupt.

That argument misses the architecture.

The system allows money to move toward politicians while government money moves toward the interests surrounding those politicians.

Kao apparently understood that perfectly. One former employee recalled him describing his politics this way:

“I’m not red or blue, I’m green.” That is why our endless partisan argument is so useful to the people benefiting from the system. We argue over the jerseys while the marketplace underneath both teams continues operating.

Republicans accuse Democrats.

Democrats accuse Republicans.

Lobbyists write checks. Members of Congress raise money.

Contractors receive appropriations. Monopolies protect themselves. Consultants collect fees.

And taxpayers finance the entire machine. Then every few years Americans are invited to choose which group will administer it.

So the cycle becomes complete.

The FBI started following the map, then the investigation disappeared.

Yesterday the tax code was for sale, today the evidence points to the larger truth:

It’s all for sale.