The members of the so-called supercommittee – the group of six Republicans and six Democrats tasked with producing a deficit-cutting plan – represent states where the biggest military contractors build missiles, aircraft, jet fighters and tanks while employing tens of thousands of workers. This conflict of interest makes serious cuts to defense budgets increasingly unlikely.
The panel has until Thanksgiving to come up with recommendations. If it deadlocks or if Congress rejects its proposal, $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board cuts kick in. Up to $500 billion would hit the Pentagon. If it comes up with enough viable cuts to any part of the federal budget, defense could be spared that amount of cuts.
It has long been the business strategy of the biggest corporations in the military-industrial complex — Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Corp., Raytheon Co. and Boeing Co. — to spread their manufacturing and contracting employment base across as many states and localities as possible so as to make budget cuts a political liability for numerous members of Congress. In a recession with high unemployment, the aversion to placing defense corporations on the chopping block is even more potent, and this group of 12 committee members is particularly susceptible to such pressures.
For committee members such as Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and John Kerry (D-MA), the incentive to leave these defense contractors untouched is amplified. Some 30,000 Boeing employees are working in Everett, Washington on giant airborne refueling tankers for the Air Force. In Amarillo, Texas, 1,100 Bell Helicopter Textron workers assemble the fuselage, wings, engines and transmissions for the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. For Kerry, Massachusetts was fifth in the nation with $8.37 billion in defense contracts this year.
Campaign contributions are also part of the equation. For example, Boeing was fourth on the list of donors to Patty Murray from 2007-2012, contributing $102,610 in all. Senator Pat Toomey admitted the conflict of interest last week when pressed about the impact on Pennsylvania’s defense industry. He said, “I think we all have very good reasons to try to prevent” the automatic cuts.
Contributions and domestic unemployment are not the end of it though, as the revolving door between the Pentagon and the private sector as well as former defense industry lobbyists within the Obama administration add even more pressure against deep cuts to defense budgets.
The various numbers being mentioned as possible cuts to the budget, though characterized as overly drastic, are actually meager when put into context, barely making a dent in the actual capacities of the military or Pentagon. Still, given the pressures these select dozen committee members face, the final proposal is likely to be very minor.
Jefferson and Franklin would probably never have imagined that Congress would turn over its power to a 12 member committee – but then they would probably never have imagined that we could have the "steal all " Congress that is sitting in Washington – for how long?
"What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -Thomas Jefferson
One of the ancient Greeks once observed that democracy is more like a transition than a state. It's only today people take democracy for granted, believing it will last without any effort put in.
There will be no change in defence industry project or defence budget.
2007-2012, contributing $102,610 is peanuts–did you catch the 1500% increase in wealth of many senators popsted a couple days ago on WRH? Called Pork barreling–kick backs from investing in military stocks. I recall (over 20 years ago), stock bribes and Hillary Clinton was caught doing the same. here is how the scam works–Politician gets a call to invest max. amount in a stock, it increases X10 fold overnite and then stockholder gets a call to cash in and the stock falls down to penny values. Got to see the list of Porkers in Washington making a killing :^/
Lets be clear, the "Super Commitee" is going to be concerned primarily with "entitlement reform". The only defense cuts to expect are the ghastly bloated boondoggles which have been overbudget and sans raison d'etre from day one.
Basically the shit that was going to get cut anyway cause no one could figure out what the hell they were supposed to be or where all the money went. Just to be more clear, they WONT cut defense in any way that would amount to any kind of reduction in militarism. That would mean poking at their War & Security Industry asset bubble.
Any industry that regularly charges markups of a thousand percent (and far higher) is a serious problem: http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/national-se…
When it pops, it's gonna get ugly.
I'm not sure that Congress has turned its "power" over to this committee. They've put the responsibility for doing what the Congressional leaders should have done in the lap of these 12 sacrificial lambs. When this committee either fails to reach agreement and the automatic cuts kick in (supposedly) or they reach an agreement that effectively does nothing (remember the old saying of "do no harm") they will be hung out as goats by the leadership…"we didn't do it, don't blame us – they did!!"
The Congress has not used their "power" for good for a very long time. They been co-opted by the moneymen and ideologues. The intended power behind Congress – the PEOPLE – have been tossed overboard and taken hostage to be used as a source for cash and cannon fodder.
As long as our presidents keep making undeclared war all over the map it is hard to see how cutting 500 billion over 10 years from the expanding defense budget can be more than a drop in the bucket. And compared to bombing countries and creating massive blowback it seems to me this kind of "defense" spending is much less vicious.
Foreign adventurism has made the U.S. into European royalty's hoodlums and this super congress assures an American public's tax burden dedicated to supporting the genetic slag of Europe for years to come until the inevitable bailout by the big central bank, and oh how much the American people will appreciatre it. Two days of hunger and people steal for food. after a week they will kill for it. The efforts are being made to ensure this American eventuality. See HAARP, Fukushima falllout, codex Alimentaris, high unemployment and joblessness, massive housing and stock market fraud and America refuses to react.