Armed Services Chair calls on Governors’ help
Howard “Buck” McKeon (R) is calling on the Presidentially appointed, bipartisan Council of Governors to support his efforts at heading off the arbitrary sequestration cuts set to literally decimate the defense budget. McKeon has been a frequent and vocal advocate for vets, active and reserve service members and a robust, healthy defense apparatus in general. Previously the Council of Governors made a successful push to trim back cuts to the Air Force National Guard in their states. NIMBY politics, maybe, but effective and prudent. Now McKeon hopes that this organization of ten governors can act as a relief force for the rest of the military.
Normally I’d say that outside of their local needs most of these politicans would happily throw the military to the wolves. After all, just as Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.” The good news? These politics are local. Of the ten Governors on the Council all five of the Democrats, a group normally ambivalent to defense spending as it doesn’t yield demographic patronage for their party, are the Governors of states with large military communities and/or facilities. That means jobs and money.
These states are Washington (PSNS/Naval Base Kitsap/JBLM/Naval Base Everett), Maryland (NSA/Aberdeen/Andrews/contractors galore), North Carolina (Bragg/Pope/Lejeune/Cherry Point), Oklahoma (Tinker/Sill), Hawai’i (MCB Hawaii/Pearl Harbor) and Missouri (Whitman/Leonard Wood). This may be the best chance yet for a bipartisan commission of the President’s own choosing to rebuke the pending cuts. If you live in any of these states you should be looking up the contact info of both your Governor and your State Rep and demanding they back Rep McKeon. With the election looming Obama must scramble to preserve jobs, even if they come from the “evil” military-industrial complex. This is exactly where we should be hitting him.
Category: 2012 election, Defense cuts, Politics
Don’t count on any help from Chrissy Gregoire, our Washington Governor. She’s a lame duck and she’s looking for a Cabinet gig. No way she crosses the Empty Suit.
Forget help from Bev Purdue in NC. She doesn’t want to face the electorate this time because of her poor record and is not running. She vetoed VoterID legislation, despite 3/4 of all eligible voters wanting it.
My US Rep is David Price, and he is a feckless, crapweasel libtard we in NC4 are likely stuck with in perpetuity b/c of redistricting gamble to win back NC13.
Don’t forget Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro. Do Coasties count in realignment, as we have lots of them in, on and around our extensive coastline.
re #2
Coasties have a small footprint and much of their budget is cut out of non-DoD spending. They tend to follow the maritime traffic.
Buck ain’t gonna get much help from his own governor either. Buck’s my rep, but Brown is a liberal douche bag of the lowest order and won’t back anything in regards to the military.
Even though that idiot has the largest Navy port on the west coast, the National Training Center, Vandenberg AFB, Edwards AFB and a few more in the state, he won’t do shit for the military here.
About the only time I’ve seen a Dem lately back keeping a base or facility open is when they supported keeping Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open.
Granted, it’s not as big or sexy as a Norfolk, Groton, or even Point Loma (San Diego), the impact on the local economy would be devestating, to say the least.
And just because Governor Lynch is on his way out and the current Maine governor (LePage) is a Republican, there’s still a big liberal influence with Pingree in Congress and Shaheen in the Senate on both sides of the Piscataqua River.
Governor Fallin will make the attempt. Besides Tinker, Sill, Altus and Vance, there’s the Thunderbirds and the Great 158.