Laying the political groundwork for devastating security disinvestment and defense sector job cuts
They’re coming. They’re real. After the initial rounds of cuts initiated by the Democrats and then the bi-partisan failure to insulate our national defense from indiscriminate slash and burn budgeting we are now on the precipice of the enfeebled 90’s military with 21st century commitments and enemies. The cynical tilling of the field for these cuts by the anti-military Left has been deliberate and systematic.
Not to say that the adolescent libertarian Right is without blame. Welcome to the hell paved with stupid intentions. Any doubt about the cross-cultural nature of this stupidity can be quickly remedied by simple Google searches. Yep, that’s the perennially useless Barney Frank side by side with Chemtrail hero Ron Paul. Go get ’em guys!
We should start with the testing ground of all new talking points in politics, the internet. Here we have on the “Real News Network’s” hosting the unbiased Jo Comerford of the “National Priorities Project“, going on about military cuts:
A significant yet tired piece of propaganda emerges from this video. Comerford begins with, and ultimately relies upon, the idiot’s impression of the federal budget: that federal discretionary spending constitutes the most important, even most substantial, portion of government spending. It’s important to note that after her tired charade, which attempts to impress on the viewer that the portion of federal spending which constitutes military spending is the lion’s share, the circus master chimes in around the 3:00 minute mark with the reinforcing: “…because the military represents such a bigger portion of the overall budget.”
Oh, really?
The federal discretionary budget, of which nearly all of military spending falls, accounts for about 1/3rd of all federal spending. Of overall government expenditures, in our intentionally localized Republic, approximately half is at the state and municipal level. In other words the federal discretionary budget account for about 1/6th of total government expenditures. In total, including all the possible defense related expenditures, such as multiple serving government functions like the Coast Guard and FBI Counter Terrorism, VA, etc spending that she prattles on about. The total amount of government expenditures on our security is about 15%. So much for a “bigger portion”. Or even a bigger portion once the relief the VA gives to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid by covering what would otherwise be those programs beneficiaries, for that matter.
My attention next turns to the insular and irrationally leftist word of academia, so irreparably overrun by bankrupt radicals in the 1960s. Keep your eyes peeled because a recent study out of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will be frequently cited in the coming month by various Progressive and Liberal talking heads to illustrate the “wisdom” in executing their pro-welfare, anti-military agenda. If it doesn’t end up footnoted on a segment of the Rachel Maddow Show at least once I’ll be amazed.
Now aside for “tax cuts for personal consumption” (i.e. letting you keep your money) this study offers the conclusion that defense spending is the least productive form of public spending available. The most productive? Why for them of them of course it’s an “education”. As if the trawling hoards of meticulously educated students without jobs and supported by the elite bourgeois liberal establishment throwing adolescent tantrums about the job market’s disinterest wasn’t enough to dissuade the notion that academia is serving an indispensable and reproachless job for our nation now. Or most simply, as an astute commentator on Naked Capitalism commented, they’re “talking book“.
Lastly the New York Times jumps into the fray with the intent of heading off criticism at the pass. The Times know that the sheer economics of slashing into a budget which supports over 6 million workers while trumpeting 200k new jobs this month is both endemic and politically untenable in the US. So they belatedly acknowledge:
…as the Pentagon confronts the prospect of cutting its budget by about 10 percent over the next decade, even some people who do not count themselves among its traditional allies warn that the potential impact on scientific innovation is being overlooked. Spending less on military research, they say, could reduce the economy’s long-term growth.
“If catalyzing innovation is going to be an important part of our economic strategy, then we better be careful how we handle” the military budget, said Daniel Sarewitz, director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University. “I’d like to see a lot less weapons and a lot less focus on them, but it’s not all about that.”
In the political debate over Pentagon cuts, the potential effect on innovation has been largely ignored. Pentagon officials and their allies have instead warned that a sharply smaller military budget would expose the nation to harm, and that such cuts would result in a large and immediate rise in unemployment.
Now of course they slip in jabs such as…
The wellspring of this prosperity is not just the Defense Department’s vast payroll, nor just the fat profit margins of its contractors.
—
Independent economists and analysts say that concern about the short-term economic impact is largely misplaced. While reducing the Pentagon’s budget would cause considerable economic pain — some workers would lose their jobs; some contractors would lose their most important customer — research suggests it would be less painful than cutting other kinds of government spending, like education or transportation.
I do wonder…which “independent economists” and researchers are we talking about? I can hazard a guess.
Uh, oh…wait for it…here it comes…
“As a source of job creation, military spending is not particularly good,” said Robert Pollin, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.“You can argue for the benefits in geopolitical terms, but if we’re talking about jobs and the economy, it doesn’t make sense.”
Oh, yes. Of course.
So, in the end, you might ask: what’s the point? My point is simple. Don’accept “leading experts” or “independent economists”. My point is to follow that footnote, Google that name, put a face to a name and figure out who is undercutting your security and why. Click that link. Dive into that Rabbit Hole.
Category: 2012 election, Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Defense cuts, Military issues
LETS GET SERIOUS.. THIS MILITARY CUT PROPAGANDA IS JUST THAT!!! NOTHING IN REAL DEFENSE HAS TO BE CUT!!! LET OBAMUNIST CAL DARPA UP AND CUT ALL HIS SPY ON AMERICA TOYS.. ITS TRILLIONS!!! TINY FLY DRONE?? 20 MILLION, TINY SPY OAK LEAF?? 40 MILLION.. 2 EXAMPLES, OF MILLIONS OF STUPID STEALTH TOYS AGAINST AMERICANS, NOT THE ENEMY!! FACT!!
re #1:
Numbers. Facts. Links. Without them you are simply the post we link our friends to in order to elicit laughs. I’m laughing right now in fact.
TOO LAZY, TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH … TROLL? pretty sure I care, -less if you’re a moron, who laughs at facts.
# 3
Your tenuous grasp of both grammar and simple decorum adequately demonstrates you’re without any actual value in this discussion. Thanks for playing, better luck next time.
You’re right. Government is overspending still, it doesn’t automatically mean in military but it’s certainly needs cuts or better budget management.
And so, with a weakened economy, forced down everybody’s throat healthcare, plus EPA reg’s and by-passing Congress every chance they get, with a now proposed weakened military the Progressives & Liberal dreams of their utopia appears to them at least, to be on the horizon. At the very least that is what I see coming down the trail….
Well, I see someone left the door open to the “home” again.
And I’ve seen similar studies. Anyone who thinks we can fulfill our current requirements and tasking with 35 SSN’s has no fucking clue what they do.
No kidding, Sparky. Looks like someone is up early at the local Ron Paul HQ.
The Ron Paul nation never sleeps…and they never do their own research
so with all the cuts to the military, who’s going to be left to round up all the NDAA enemies of the state for indefinite detention?
What really fucking scares me is that people who SHOULD know better are supporting Paul next Tuesday.
Talk about your epic facepalm.
And once again the adage “He who doesn’t learn from history is bound to repeat it” is proven. After EVERY war, conflict, argument, spat or neighborhood quarrel, they reduce the strength of the military and Marine Corps and when the ‘brown stuff hits the air circulation device’ they’re scrambling to rebuild our armed forces. Our troups are sent on multiple tours to the hot zone and when they come back ‘half a bubble off plum’ they’re branded ‘PTSD crazed’ veterans.
They wanna save money? Cut ‘Jo-the-Ho’, with 5 kids by 5 different guys off the welfare rolls! Let Pedro and Maria, both high school drop outs, support their own 7 kids. (I can get away with that one, I’m Hispanic and a 1986 graduate from ASU, I used the GI Bill) Make ‘Lazy Lou’, who convinced some quack MD he’s traumatized because he didn’t get a GI Joe when he was 8, get a fricking job!
Yat Yas, your last paragraph is going to get Joey’s panties in a wad, again. Doncha know, we’re only supposed to to support Jo-the-Ho, Pedro and Maria and Lazy Lou. Defense is vastly over-funded, according to Joey and his mouth breathing brethren, from both sides of the aisle. And, you left off the whack-job who convinced Social Security that he has to be paid disability because he lives in a diaper and “can’t function” in society.
And, these asshats in academia spout the tripe that government is only here to “create jobs”, pay people to sit on their asses and collect money. Government has no business paying for something that’s actually mandated by the Constitution.
UpNorth–hey, just give me back what I’ve paid in, and I’ll never ask for a dime in SS money. I’m pretty sure I’ll never come close to getting back what I put in, but what the hell, right?
Up front: I work for a defense contractor.
There’s a silver lining to this: the folks in uniform, and those GS that genuinely believe in the service (which is quite rare, btw – and I’ve worked with Army, Navy, and now Air Force) will have to learn to follow established law, such as the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and the wealth of laws, rules and regs that tell the services to buy smart.
When a 4-star walks into the office and says “I’ve got $90 million to spend, and show that I’m supporting GWOT, and I’ve got to report back success in 10 working days” – guess what? The money got spent, and vendors hyper-inflated their prices in order to square away said still-serving GO.
The principle of overspending because it’s Other People’s Money (the spender is not personally spending his/her own cash) has ripped off the American People for decades.
Folks – if the Flag Officers and SES can become habituated to careful, real stewardship of our money, we will have the very best military in the world once Obama is gone.
The danger in hollowing out the force is that a President will have to either threaten AND USE nukes in order to protect Americans and our interests. Carter learned to his detriment that hollowing the CIA and the DOD may have played well to the communists in the Dem party, but Americans were genuinely pissed over our people being held hostage in Iran for 444 days.
As an aside, each time America has cut its military, the world erupted in some horrendous wars. Once our military is hollowed under Obama, Taiwan is gone. Southeast Asia will see a rather violent quasi-war as the PLAN enforces China’s interests. Israel will have to employ nukes. Georgia and several of the stans will be re-absorbed as Russia counters India and China.
Sparky, none of us will get back what we paid in. Gotta fund those who never paid.
And, even a blind squirrel could get a better return on the money that’s “contributed” every pay period than the jackwagons who run SS now. But then, the money goes into the regular government coffers, not into the “lock box”.
“Georgia and several of the stans will be re-absorbed as Russia counters India and China”. Not to mention, probably most of the Baltic States too. Or, maybe we’ll be treated to the Warsaw Pact Part Deux.
UpNorth; The Cold War has never “ended”…..You do remember where Putin started?
The plane landed at Chavez International Airport at about 3:30 on the 22nd of August 2020. Curt was excited to see Baltimore again after such a long absence. He would not be in Baltimore long however. He had flown in for Lucy’s funeral. He had one extra day to meet some old friends and dine at Fells Point before heading back.
Curt left the Airport in a Kia Sundai hatchback. It was an old auto built wtihout a GPS system. Curt was not worried.
He once knew the streets of Baltimore very well. The old part of the city could not have changed that much he thought.
But on the way in to the city he was greeted by a big surprise. He no longer drove underneath the Harbor to reach downtown. He still went through a tunnel but no the tunnel went through the side of a mountain.
As Curt emerged on the other side to the tunnel and pulled in to the old city he was shocked at how much things had changed. The archetecture now had a completely different look. At first Curt thought that he was just in a new China Town. But the more he drove the more he realized that Baltimore did not have a China Town Baltimore was a China Town. Even the street signs were in Chinese. About 15 minutes latter Curt realized that he was completely lost.
Not only were the street signs in Chinese but the charachter of the city had completely chnaged. Now longer was it a working class city but it was a city of artists. Everything that had made Baltimore great like the Aquarium, the train Mueseum, the stadium, John Hopkins, and Fort McSnelling, were still there but thier relative locations had all shifted.
Curt was trapped in a nightmare and the only way out was back through the tunnel that had brought him in to the city.
Just then a black raven began flying beside his windshield.
It was Edgar.
Hey, look, hiding behind the bushes in #18. There’s a red-tailed, non-flying Ass Bird, you can tell it by it’s cry. It’s the only bird that can talk, but the down side to that is it only spouts gibberish.
Streets, oh yeah, the Colonel was a star in the KGB. Seems I read somewhere that he made his bones beating the shit out of “dissidents”, er, “maintaining surveillance on students”. Unlike the unicorn worshipping, fart sniffing idiots in this administration, I too, don’t believe the Cold War ever ended, it just evolved to what we have today.
I will posit that if there is a time the military needs to cut spending, then now is not that time, and it should not be in this fashion. Sure we’ve had a grand ol time deploying our asses to the hot sand, but really when you come back your vehicles are junked, can’t use them. Then we had to get MRAPs. Then we had to have this and that. We’ve been training to fight this war, and spending oodles to do it, and all the while neglecting the homefront. Example the c-17. Nearly all airframes are in constant use. They really have no down time. They’re an amazing aircraft capable of hauling loads far beyond what aircraft of comparable size can do, and are also amazingly versatile, but they, like every aircraft wear out. The fact that we can no longer have Ft Lewis and McCord AFB should send a signal. These are primary bases. When not talking about vehicles, we have additional problems in TRADOC at least in the Army. Because they needed Soldiers, and needed to get them through they softened the rules, and thus created a dangerous element with soldiers neither fit, nor prepared to fight. I do agree that we need to take a long hard look at how we do buisness in the DoD, but we also need to take a long hard look at every other Dept. State for example has a massive budget and yet the career service officers the second they get their gold watch will often turn around and be lobbyists for whatever foreign government pays the most We also desperately need entitlement reform. Go to any county in Southern West Virginia, and you’ll see the very worst stereotypes of Welfare Queens, and Deadbeat Kings. The culture of Entitlement has hobbled this nation. We wouldn’t even need to cut military spending at all if not for all the “gimmie” programs. Lastly, If we are in face an Empire, one should root us to stay in power for as long as possible. One should hope our shadow covers as much area… Read more »
#20: I agree. The DOD’s problem is that the “teeth” (combat vehicles) is never as sexy as the “tail” (logistics).
The KC-X should never have happened. Why in God’s name are we paying Blackwater/Xe, KBR and other con-men in suit to do work in a combat zone that Joes can and have done for much cheaper?
What’s gonna get cut are family, MWR and health programs that the brass never fully understands or wants (that love of the teeth again). Here at Fort Bliss we’ve had problems with services because the main focus was on the Patriot Units on post. With the 1st AD here, they’ve improves things greatly. But with cuts on offer I can see layoffs.
@21: I made this point earlier. With pay alone, Contractors cost at least 4 times as much as the Joes they replace.
And don’t forget, modernization, replacement of worn out equipment gets cut because liberals think that military equipment is like a windup toy. They tend to look at raw numbers and just assume that a force of 500,000 can be cut and still fight.
Clinton had the opportunity to replace many aging ships and aircraft on his watch, but he was too busy chasing inters to do so. GWB let the fox guard the henhouse (and Darleen Druyun went to prison).
On the right, yes we have the Paulin nutjobs. “Bring the boys back home” is not just a leftie catchphrase. There are those who’d blue falcon our allies because of the deficit or just to be dicks. There are those in the GOP (RINO and deficit hawks) who want to slash and slash to placate the Dems and balance the budget.
Don’t forget, the reason we have a Dept. of Veterans affairs it that the VA was moved from HHS to the DOD so that the 80’s era congress could say they “cut” entitlements while Regan “increased” defense.
And it was moved back out again so that the DOD could go back to it’s job of winning wars.
“… precipice of the enfeebled 90?s military…” actually far less then that. The USA alone didn’t really have the manpower to do what it was doing in the 90s with the manpower available. Remember the old “beware a 12 Division strategy with a 10 Division Army.”, that is constantly quoted to Shinseki but was actually coined in the 90s. Nevermind all the aging airframes and naval vessals, a disproportionate number of whom date back to the Reagan build up of the 80s.
As for them misrepresenting how the budget is dispensed, what’s new about that. I don’t think they have a grasp of what discretionary spending is, or was, unless Al Gore was pontificating on his mythical lock box that never existed.
“The most productive? Why for them of them of course it’s an “education”.” That’s exactly what America’s school children need less of. How much is enough? Our children are more ignorant now then they were 15(or 30) years ago. It’s nothing more then indoctrination that does nothing but discourage our children from real intellectual pursuits.
“Welcome to the hell paved with stupid intentions.” Heh, I’m gonna steal that line. Nice post, I concur.
Curt stood there watching the luggage go around in circles as he waited for his suitcase. The luggage distracted him from what he had been thinking about. Just a few moments before he had been thinking about the movies that been shown aboard his return flight. The first movie was called To Catch a Thief. It was about how the Chinese leadership had tricked the US political leadership in to supporting an African American for vice president earlier in the Century. When the president was assassinated he became President and gave the keys to the kingdom to the Chinese. A few FBI agents figured out what had really happened and tryed to save the country but in the end they were struck be pieces of space debris and killed or put in to a coma. I actually found the story absurd and fell asleep only to wake up at the end of the movie. I guess that they left one of the FBI agents in a comma so that they could make a prequel. Anyways it was fortunate that I woke up because I liked the second movie better. It was a remake of the classic movie The Orchid Thief. It was about a man who built a illicet drug empire converting Orchids to an Opium like substance. As Curt past through customs he broke a rule. He did not declare the items that he brough back but becasue of of of well let us just say his demeanor he was not questioned. As I walked through the concourse there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see an old man with a fu manchu mustache looking at me. He said, Pig Pen its me! Me, Mark Botz, you still remember me right? From school back when we were young! I recognized you right away you know. You have not changed a bit. You still look like you did when you were 20 years old. Pig Pen what are you doing here asked Mark. I said that I lived here. Really!? said Mark. (before I had a chance… Read more »