Ostrolenk speaks with Mandy Smithberger, Director for the Center for Defense Information at POGO (https://www.pogo.org/). Smithberger details their newest report Brass Parachutes: The Problem of the Pentagon Revolving Door (https://www.pogo.org/report/2018/11/brass-parachutes/). The report highlights the ways in which the military industrial complex conflates what is in the best financial interest of defense contracts and large budgets with military effectiveness and what is in the best interest of tax payers. Smithberger provides several examples. This includes ethical loopholes such as the fact that senior officials face few limits and lobbying that restricts that are overly narrow and miss behind the scenes work. To learn more about Smithberger’s work and POGO’s new report, click on the links above.