Defense industry fears sequester delay won’t stop Pentagon cuts
“Even when sequester was on the table along with the fiscal cliff, it seemed pretty clear that to get to a spending-side agreement you will have to go deeper in defense,” said Gordon Adams, a defense analyst at the Stimson Center.
“Now the trade-offs are all on the spending side,” he said. “If the Democrats are going to give anything in the Medicare, Social Security arena, they are almost assuredly going to ask for something in the defense arena.”…
“I will fight anybody from any party that wants to destroy the Defense Department,” Graham told reporters Thursday. “If you think defense is not the No. 1 role of the federal government, you’ve lost you’re way in terms of constitutional priorities.”…
“What the defense industry learned from its lobbying campaign is that when there’s no urgent threat, the political system views it as just another interest group,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute who consults with several defense contractors.
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*sigh* We are so unserious about controlling spending it is absurd.
The most recent figures I have heard are that even if sequester cuts were allowed to take effect, our defense budget would go back to 2007 levels. Is there anyone who seriously thinks our defense budget was seriously underfunded in 2007, just 5 years ago? Under George W. Bush, no less.
Yes, defense is the number one priority of the federal government. But like everything else the federal government touches, there is huge waste, cronyism, fraud, pandering to special interests, etc. in the defense budget. There is plenty of room to cut without making us less safe. Republicans have to acknowledge that if we are to make any serious progress in getting spending under control.
Shump on January 7, 2013 at 8:29 AM