The House and Senate have a substantial bipartisan history of 'plussing up' the defense budget. And clearly, in this environment, we need to continue to plus up defense.ĬHAKRABARTI: McConnell isn't asking Congress to do anything new. We have the ongoing challenge of meeting China in the future. MITCH McCONNELL: The defense budget ought to reflect the nature of the threat. Saying, if anything, substantial increases in the defense budget are in order. That is essentially what Republican Senator Mitch McConnell declared yesterday. MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: The Pentagon's budget is not big enough. Taylor Giorno, money-in-politics reporter at OpenSecrets, a research and government transparency group tracking money in politics and its effect on elections and policy. Member of the House Committee on Armed Services and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. John Garamendi, Democratic Representative for California’s 8th congressional district. undersecretary of the Army from 1975 to 1977. Norman Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin. Today, On Point: How a secret dinner at the Pentagon kicked off a massive consolidation in the defense industry. 'I happened to be seated next Les Aspin, and I remember I said, ‘Les, this is awfully nice of you to invite us all to dinner, we’re all pleased to have a free meal, but why are we here?’ And he said, ‘Well, in about 15 minutes, you’re going to find out.

'We showed up for dinner at the Pentagon one night dutifully, none of us knowing why we were there,' Norman Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, says. Norm Augustine, then the head of Martin Marietta, remembers getting the call.

In 1993, then Secretary of Defense Les Aspin invited the CEOs of America's largest defense contractors to a secret dinner. Sign up for the On Point newsletter here. This rebroadcast originally aired on March 1, 2023.

The Pentagon logo and an American flag are lit up Januin the briefing room of Pentagon in Arlington, VA.

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