What the mainstream media and the politicians are NOT telling you about military spending

[NewJeffCT]

34. the graphic shows the relation of lobbying expenses

to total corporate profits. The defense industry also spends a relatively low amount of money lobbying compared to other industries.

Plus, big defense contractors like GE, Boeing and United Technologies make most of their profit in other lines of business, and by selling to overseas customers. For UTC, their biggest money-maker with the highest profit margins is Otis Elevator. Sikorsky, their biggest defense contractor, has the lowest profit margin, though Carrier (the A/C makers) was lower previously because of the real estate crash from 2006-2009. And, their other defense related lines of business also make most of their profits in commercial business. Pratt & Whitney makes engines for commercial jets, as well as many in our air force - but, their biggest profit maker is making engines for small corporate jets.

GE's primary source of profit is its financial services business, GE Capital, and GE Energy, which account for a good 70% of its profit. They had $4.3 billion in defense contracts in 2010 (less than 3% of their overall revenue), but had about $12.0 billion in overall profits.