We Cannot Gut Georgia’s Economy to Save Defense Contractors
Audio Release: We Cannot Gut Georgia’s
Economy to Save Defense Contractors
In a call today, military vets, state leaders and budget experts outlined the possible impact of automatic budget cuts on Georgia’s economy and why military and civilian leaders believe U.S. could afford necessary reductions in Pentagon spending.
For Immediate Release: Date: August 23, 2012
Contacts:Rachel Wisch, Public Information Officer
Women’s Action for New Directions & Women Legislators’ Lobby
Cell: 202-599-0746 Email: rwisch@wand.org
Sara DuBois, Communications Director
National Security Network
Cell: 202-289-7113 Email: sdubois@nsnetwork.org
Georgia – A Georgia state senator was joined by a local military veteran and experts on national security and the Pentagon budget on a call today to address those fanning fears about automatic budget cuts slated for next year instead of finding a comprehensive, safe and secure alternative budget. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) is expected to speak tomorrow morning at the College of Coastal Georgia in Kingsland as part of a series of town hall meetings discussing these automatic “sequestration” cuts.
In addition to participation in this call, GA Senator Nan Grogan Orrock and Master Sergeant Bob Farquhar (ret.) will also attend Senator Chambliss’ town hall meeting tomorrow and will be available for comment on-site.
State Senator Nan Grogan Orrock (D-GA-36), President for the Women Legislators’ Lobby of Women’s Action for New Directions, delineated the specific devastating impacts ‘sequestration’ would have on nondefense programs, education and veterans. “The sequestration arrangement calls for across-the-board cuts to both Pentagon as well as domestic spending. Now we hear from the contractors that the Pentagon budget should be sacrosanct, that there should be no cuts there. What that of course would mean is that the cuts to the states, to the programs, to the jobs and services would be even deeper.”
Dr. Lawrence Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration and retired Naval Flight Officer, explained that defense contractors' fear-mongering about the impact on jobs is disingenuous, military bases would not be closed, contracts would not be terminated, and that the Pentagon has ample funds and options to meet 21st century security challenges. “Even John McCain, who’s opposed to sequester, calls the way the Pentagon manages its weapons systems a scandal and a tragedy… I have to laugh when I see people from companies running around and saying ‘Whoa, if you have these cuts we’re going to have to lay off all these people’…In the last five years, from 2006 to 2011, the defense budget went up by 13%. Lockheed actually had 10% less employees. If the budget goes up and you’re going to lay off people, it’s just really, really absurd.”
Master Sergeant Bob Farquhar (ret.), decorated 24-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, nuclear policy scholar, resident of Bonaire, GA, described a Cold War nuclear program as one area where spending could be reduced or shifted to the benefit of U.S. security. “There’s a B-61 freefall bomb [defense hawks are] wanting to upgrade at a cost of $10 billion, and this was a bomb from the 1960’s. We have roughly 4-500 of them in our inventory, but… why do we need these things anymore? The Cold War is now over for more than 20 years. There’s no rational reason that I can see or that anyone’s been able to provide to me as to why we need to maintain such a large nuclear force. Nuclear weapons are one way that we can save a considerable amount of money.”
Heather Hurlburt, National Security Network Executive director, former White House and State Department speechwriter and policy planning official, detailed the consensus among military and national security leaders that Pentagon spending should be on the table. “The idea that’s being peddled by some members of Congress that we can somehow solve the defense problem separate from the rest of the sequester problem is just not realistic. In fact, our Pentagon leaders know that, and both the current and former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have asked Congress to come up with a comprehensive solution that funds the domestic economy as well as the military going forward.”
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Additional Resources:
- "Sequestration's Impact on Nondefense Jobs and Services," Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education report, 7/25/12
- “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: 2011 Update,” Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 12/11
- "Spending Even Less, Spending Even Smarter: Recommendations for National Security Savings, FY 2013 to FY 2022--Deficit Reduction: $688 Billion," Project on Government Oversight, 5/8/12
- “"Execs: Sequestration Hype Could Hurt Firms," William Swanson via Defense News, 7/22/12
- “"We are only as strong as those three pillars – diplomatic, military and economic – can interrelate," Martin Dempsey, 1/12/12
- “I have said from the beginning that I think defense has to be on the table," Michael Mullen via Defense News, 7/10/11
- “Sequester was supposed to be … a trigger so irrational that the prospect of it would … drive the leadership to do what was needed, which was to put together an overall budget package for the nation’s finances that could win wide support, ” Ashton Carter via Washington Times, 5/30/12
- POLLING ROUND-UP: “Hunt the Hawk,” Slate, 8/1/12
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