Co-authored by John Amick
You know it's a big moment for defenders of the United States' bloated military budget when some of the all-time superstars of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex descend on Capitol Hill to fight for their perceived right to profit.
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to address the 2013 Defense Appropriations bill beginning Wednesday, which will go a long way in framing the later debate on automatic cuts to defense set to happen on January 2, 2013. The "sequester" was set into law -- via the Budget Control Act -- last year in an effort to compel Congress to reach a deficit-reduction plan. The automatic cuts would take the Pentagon's requested FY 2013 budget of $526 billion to $469 billion, reducing Department of Defense spending by around $1 trillion over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office says that amount is "larger than it was in 2006 (in 2013 dollars) and larger than the average base budget during the 1980s." If you recall, 2006 wasn't such a bad year to be a defense contractor.
Ahead of that floor debate, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.) -- the top benefactor of defense-industry contributions in Washington as Brave New Foundation's War Costs campaign has pointed out before -- will allow the likes of Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stevens yet another platform -- after weeks crying foul over potential jobs cuts a reduced defense budget would mean -- to inject further panic and hype in front of a committee hearing Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill.
Stevens has called the planned cuts "blunt force trauma" to the defense industry's economic well-being. Lockheed has also threatened to send layoff notices to employees ahead of Election Day, a craven attempt to scare workers and members of Congress with industry jobs in their districts. This is not to mention the$25.4 million Stevens made in 2011, the second consecutive year of record revenue and profit for the defense industry. Maybe Stevens could find money for his employees by cutting lobby expenditures? Lockheed spent $15 million on lobbying in 2011, up 19 percent from 2010. Lobbying by all defense contractors went up 11.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012, to $15.9 million. The idea that the likes of Lockheed Martin taking a cataclysmic tumble following the needed cuts to defense is about as unbelievable as how much taxpayer money that went to defense contractors in 2011, $373 billion, the second-highest yearly total ever. Here, Stevens and his ilk are at it again, pushing for more profits at the risk of further death and destruction, as War Costs has examined in the past.
By the way, this is an industry that, from 2008 to 2010, paid an average annual tax rate of 17.5 percent, making it among the least-taxed sectors in the country. Boeing itself paid a rate of -1.8 percent, according to the Citizens for Tax Justice.
On Tuesday, the Aerospace Industries Association unveiled an update to their 2011 study on the economic impact of such cuts. True to an industry attempting to protect their bottom line, the studies predict excessive job loss next year, around 1.09 million, if the cuts occur. Economists and academics have had a field day debunking this study, partly because, according to the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, defense spending creates fewer jobs compared to other forms of government spending -- on sectors like health care and education -- and even some tax cuts. (See more on these numbers at WarCosts.com.)
Industry shilling is only part of the onslaught. Also on Tuesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney -- a scion of wasteful defense spending, profiteering and all that is the revolving door between government and industry in Washington -- was on Capitol Hill rallying Republicans to the cause. According to Politico, Senate Republicans described the meeting with Cheney as short on policy replacements for cuts and big on stressing the investments in place amid the defense industry. What a surprise.
The defense industry has seen record profits this past decade marked by consistent warfare and little accountability, as a final report on the amount lost during the $51.4 billion Iraq war reconstruction program concludes. Enough of the propaganda. More defense money does not make the United States safer, as we've been told, and cutting a fraction of that money does not mean "doomsday" for the country as Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has claimed. It's simply common sense that folks across the political spectrum agree on, even those in areas heavy on defense manufacturing, according to a new comprehensive study.
Tell your members of Congress to support amendments in the bill that aim to reduce the defense budget, halt the war in Afghanistan and remove troops permanently stationed in Europe.
It's time elected officials hear our voice. Stop the spending that bankrupts us at home and encourages violence and war abroad.
Visit Brave New Foundation's WarCosts.com for more as the defense industry's cynical efforts unfold in the coming months.
Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robertgreenwald
The rhetoric will be extreme and they will defend the golden goose to their last breath.
to justify our for-profit wars, and our military budget is obscenely bloated beyond any measure, with civilian priorities that make us a truly strong nation diverted
to vast military excess and corporate profits.
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes strong than their democratic state itself.
That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert
and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods
and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together" -- Dwight David Eisenhower
I agree that there is definitely room for cuts in the defense sector, and that they can be executed without a "doomsday scenario". The issue with the sequestration cuts is the indiscriminate manner in which they will be implemented. The issue is that congress punted when they had a real shot at passing legislation that would be a step towards getting our nation out of a hole. You can't blame the defense companies for working within the system to ensure their stock holders get theirs. Blame congress for allowing the situation to build to this.
Also note that of the $1.2 Trillion in cuts that sequestration is due to cause, ~$500 Billion is coming from defense.
The F22 fighter killed another pilot a few wks. ago & they won't ground it, the Air Force would prefer a few more dead or brain-damaged pilots than bad PR.
Panetta warned that those cuts will be “devastating,” leaving America with “[t]he smallest ground forces since 1940,” “a fleet of fewer than 230 ships, the smallest level since 1915,” and “[t]he smallest tactical fighter force in the history of the Air Force.” General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, bluntly told Congress that the mandated reductions create “very high risk” to national security.
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/17/12795510-iraq-war-reconstruction-6-billion-to-8-billion-wasted-us-official-says?lite
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/iraq-war-reconstruction-costs-billions_n_1681979.html#comments
I admire what you are attempting to do but americans are way too fond of their military might even as it takes most of them to third world status.
I have friends that work for the industrial military complex. the wages are good, the benefits are good, the hours are good. what is not to like?
They dont lose any sleep over the decline of the american way of life. their lives are doing pretty good. we live in a survival of the fittest society. to each his own.