The US Congress has allocated large sums of money to the production of protective equipment and to job security during the pandemic. But in the end, most of the money somehow ended up in the military sector and went into military service.
The US military sector in particular benefited greatly from coronavirus control assistance from US government funds.
US President Trump, who initially denied the existence of the coronavirus and then called it the ‘Chinese virus’, received $1 billion from the US Congress at the start of the pandemic, in March this year. This money was allocated to fight the coronavirus and pay for the necessary medical care in the country.
However, the Pentagon was able to channel most of this money to non-targeted contractors in the arms sector, but not to medical products, but to the production of parts for jet engines, bulletproof vests, uniforms and other military equipment that are unlikely to serve civilian health.
The money was part of the so-called CARES Act, an act to combat coronavirus worth 2,200 billion dollars. For this purpose, a Cold War law called the Defence Industries Act of 1950 was enacted, which allows the US president to instruct companies to produce certain products. A recent report and other public statements from the White House state that US President Trump has applied the law almost 80 times to alleviate the shortage of medical supplies for the public.
“My administration has used the full force of the Defense Manufacturing Act to achieve the largest industrial mobilization since World War II”, – Trump said at a briefing to announce the report.
Ivanka Trump said in her speech at the National Congress that her father “very quickly mobilized all the forces of government and the private sector. And yet, as they say, the law was hardly ever applied during the COVID-19 pandemic, and instead, a lot of money went into service.”
In the spring, Congress allocated funds for “prevention, preparation and response to coronavirus”. Shortly afterwards, however, the Pentagon began sending hundreds of millions of dollars to defence companies, according to the Washington Post.
Companies such as Rolls Royce and ArcelorMittal reportedly received $183 million for shipbuilding. $80 million has been transferred to an aircraft component manufacturing company in Kansas. Another tens of millions of dollars were spent on satellite technology, unmanned aerial vehicles and space surveillance technology, and another 2 million dollars were spent on the manufacture of US Army uniforms.