The Pentagon is determined to pay executives of Martin Marietta and Lockheed Aviation a $16.2 million merger bonus. The money (paid with your tax dollars) is a reward to the executives for alleged savings created by the merger of the two firms, although economy had little to do with it. And bonuses are not the end of it. Lockheed Martin submitted a bill to the D.O.D. for $965 million in merger "costs," mainly moving the company H.Q. from Pennsylvania to California and downsizing some of the operations in New York, and it was toting up another tab of $1.8 billion. To fight this corporate welfare, Representatives Bernie Sanders and Peter DeFazio recently rallied a bipartisan coalition and passed an amendment to the 1996 defense appropriations bill that forbids further outlays for corporate "restructuring costs." P.S.: In bonuses to the Lockheed Martin top guns, using taxpayer money appropriated before 1996.

Editor's Note: The above appeared in the July 8th, 1996 issue of "The Nation" magazine, and came to us from "The Participant," a newsletter of the "United We Stand America: Contra Costa Chapter."