Government Portrayed as Enemy, Rep. Boxer States : Democrat Says GOP ‘Fueled’ Scandal

In a blistering attack, Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) charged Saturday that the Reagan Administration “fueled” the Pentagon procurement scandal by portraying the government as an enemy and the defense industry as “our friend.”

Delivering the Democratic response to President Reagan’s radio speech on Saturday, Boxer blamed the Administration for sharply increasing the nation’s military budget while failing to adequately monitor how the money was being spent.

Noting that the annual defense budget doubled--from $150 billion to $300 billion--during Reagan’s two terms, Boxer said: “Money was literally stuffed into the Pentagon with too little attention paid to cost or quality--as if money alone could buy us security.”

Strongest Statement

Boxer’s address marked the Democrats’ strongest statement to date about Republican responsibility for the widening scandal, which involves allegations that current and former Pentagon officials sold secret bidding documents to defense suppliers. Her comments apparently reflected a hope that no Democrat will be implicated in the investigation.

Democrats believe the scandal could be a rich political issue, in view of Republicans’ general support of increased military spending and Reagan’s specific promises to weed out fraud and corruption in defense procurement.

Foreshadowing Democrats’ efforts to use the scandal in the November elections, Boxer called on voters to “send a message through our votes that we’ve had enough of pouring billions into a bottomless money pit.”

Asserting that Congress was “deeply troubled” by the scandal, Boxer said: “It strikes at the heart of our national security, and, I believe, was fueled by a consistent message by the Reagan Administration that government is our enemy and big defense business our friend.”

A Struggling Congress

She portrayed Congress as struggling mightily to hold the line against a fiscally irresponsible Republican Administration, citing reform measures that Congress passed even though the Pentagon told congressional members to “butt out.”

Reciting a list of procurement offenses that included purchases of $7,000 coffee pots, $400 hammers, $600 toilet seats, $9,000 wrenches and $300 no-smoking signs, Boxer said Pentagon officials claimed that all these were “isolated incidents.”

“But we knew there was more, lots more,” she said. “We said the Pentagon and defense contractors were too cozy.”

The Pentagon, contractors and the Reagan Administration “howled” amid passage of legislation aimed at increasing bidding competition and preventing military procurement officials from retiring immediately into jobs at contracting firms, Boxer said. She called the scandal “the ultimate contempt,” designed to “destroy competition and cheat all of us.”

Reagan Focuses on Drugs

In his radio address Saturday, Reagan did not mention the scandal, focusing instead on global efforts to combat problems involving the use and trafficking of illegal drugs.

However, at a news conference last week in Toronto, where he was bombarded with questions about the scandal, Reagan said: “I think all of us are disappointed and upset that such things could happen.” But he went on to say that “you can’t be down there watching several million people and the total of all of the companies and the Defense Department every day and what they’re doing or what phone calls they’re making.”

For his part, Vice President George Bush, the future GOP presidential nominee, said on June 17 that he was “shocked and offended, like all Americans, at the abuse of public trust that these allegations represent.”