…Profiteer Globally
In the early part of World War II, Senator Harry Truman undertook a ten thousand mile expedition to investigate the nation’s readiness for war. His efforts created the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program–it became known as the Truman Committee. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, some called for the committee to be disbanded on the grounds that it might impede victory by meddling in strategy and tactics. It did not, and continued into 1948. The committee staged over seven-hundred hearings and produced fifty-one reports, each one approved by Democrats and Republicans on the panel. The committee’s investigative efforts saved the government approximately fifteen billion in 1948 dollars–around half a trillion in current dollars.