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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: ROBERT REICH: Defense Contractors Have Taken Over Capitol Hill ROBERT REICH: Defense Contractors Have Taken Over Capitol Hill Robert Reich, Contributor | May 27, 2012, 9:05 AM | 2,852 | 31 A A A Robert Reich, Contributor URL Robert Reich, Contributor , one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Recent Posts Why the Public's Growing Disdain for the Supreme Court May Help... WHY WE HAVE TO RAISE TAXES ON THE RICH AND END THE BUSH TAX CUTS... The Big-Lie Coup d'Etat RSS Feed Why the Public's Growing Disdain for the Supreme Court May Help Obamacare WHY WE HAVE TO RAISE TAXES ON THE RICH AND END THE BUSH TAX CUTS... The Big-Lie Coup d'Etat We can best honor those who have given their lives for this nation in combat by making sure our military might is proportional to what America needs. The United States spends more on our military than do China, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, and Germany put together. With the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the cost of fighting wars is projected to drop – but the “base” defense budget (the annual cost of paying troops and buying planes, ships, and tanks – not including the costs of actually fighting wars) is scheduled to rise. The base budget is already about 25 percent higher than it was a decade ago, adjusted for inflation. One big reason: It’s almost impossible to terminate large defense contracts. Defense contractors have cultivated sponsors on Capitol Hill and located their plants and facilities in politically important congressional districts. Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and others have made spending on national defense into America’s biggest jobs program. So we keep spending billions on Cold War weapons systems like nuclear attack submarines, aircraft carriers, and manned combat fighters that pump up the bottom lines of defense contractors but have nothing to do with 21st-century combat. For example, the Pentagon says it wants to buy fewer F-35 joint strike fighter planes than had been planned – the single-engine fighter has been plagued by cost overruns and technical glitches – but the contractors and their friends on Capitol Hill promise a fight. The absence of a budget deal on Capitol Hill is supposed to trigger an automatic across-the-board ten-year cut in the defense budget of nearly $500 billion, starting January. But Republicans have vowed to restore the cuts. The House Republican budget cuts everything else — yet brings defense spending back up. Mitt Romney’s proposed budget does the same. Yet even if the scheduled cuts occur, the Pentagon is still projected to spend over $2.7 trillion over the next ten years. At the very least, hundreds of billions could be saved without jeopardizing the nation’s security by ending weapons systems designed for an age of conventional warfare. We should shrink the F-35 fleet of stealth fighters. Cut the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons, ballistic missile submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles. And take a cleaver to the Navy and Air Force budgets. (Most of the action is with the Army, Marines and Special Forces.) At a time when Medicare, Medicaid, and non-defense discretionary spending (including most programs for the poor, as well as infrastructure and basic R&D) are in serious jeopardy, Obama and the Democrats should be calling for even more defense cuts. A reasonable and rational defense budget would be a fitting memorial to those who have given their lives so we may remain free. Recommended For Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: All (#0)
Pinko commie who wants the Reds to rape his daughters in the public square.
#2. To: tom007 (#1)
As a credentialed Pinko commie, this dwarf is entitled to column inches in the controlled print press and select minutes on the controlled electronic media to make anti- war, anti-military noises. "Squeak-squeak. Squeak-squeak." It don't mean nothin'.
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