{"id":255,"date":"2012-08-23T08:03:45","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T13:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/blog\/?p=255"},"modified":"2013-02-06T16:26:48","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T22:26:48","slug":"speaking-out-of-both-sides-of-their-neck-on-military-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/speaking-out-of-both-sides-of-their-neck-on-military-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Abandon \u2018Government Doesn\u2019t Create Jobs\u2019 Mantra In Fight To Preserve Military Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ben Armbruster<\/a>, Thing Progress
\nJul 18, 2012 at 5:23 pm
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

Defense industry<\/a>–backed<\/a>Republicans are so desperate to stave off the automatic military spending cuts that they\u2019re trying to scare Americans about job losses and an ensuing nose-diving economy should the military spending cuts hold.<\/p>\n

Except there\u2019s one problem. Republicans aren\u2019t supposed to believe that government spending creates jobs. But in this last act of desperation, however, it seems that Republicans pushing to preserve America\u2019s bloated military budget have come to a pretty significant epiphany. Next week, three right-wing think tanks will co-host<\/a> Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Reps. Howard \u201cBuck\u201d McKeon (R-CA) and Randy Forbers (R-VA) to \u201cdiscuss the dangers of deeper defense cuts.\u201d All four lawmakers are warning about job loss because of sequestration, yet they\u2019ve all previously argued that government spending doesn\u2019t create jobs:<\/p>\n

SEN. KELLY AYOTTE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now<\/span>: \u201cSo we\u2019re not just talking about the jobs issue<\/strong>, which is, of course, of concern to anyone who serves in Congress. We\u2019re talking about lost lives if we don\u2019t give our men and women the equipment that they need.\u201d [6\/24\/12<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Then<\/span>: \u201cIt\u2019s not the government that\u2019s going to create jobs in this country<\/strong>, it\u2019s our small businesses, it\u2019s the private sector.\u201d [9\/22\/10<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SEN. JON KYL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now<\/span>: \u201cThe whole point here [staving off the sequester] is to try to get some economic growth, job creation<\/strong>, to get out of this recession.\u201d [5\/24\/12<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Then<\/span>: \u201cFaced with the reality of historic unemployment rates and record federal debt, I had hoped that President Obama, by now, would understand that even more government spending doesn\u2019t create jobs<\/strong>.\u201d [9\/09\/11<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

REP. BUCK MCKEON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now<\/span>: \u201cSequestration\u2019s impact on the economy would be sudden and severe<\/strong>, \u2026 result[ing] in the loss of about 1 million jobs in 2013 and 2014 and a half a percent cut to America\u2019s already meager economic growth.\u201d [6\/24\/12<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Then<\/span>: \u201cWe don\u2019t look to the government usually to create jobs. What we like to see them do is get out of our hair and let us create the jobs<\/strong>.\u201d [5\/21\/12<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

REP. RANDY FORBES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now<\/span>: \u201cFor reasons of both national security and local jobs<\/strong>, citizens of Hampton Roads ought to carefully consider the sober assessments of our military commanders and leaders regarding the impacts of adding another $600 billion in security cuts to the $489 billion Congress has already enacted.\u201d [10\/08\/11<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Then<\/span>: \u201cCongressman Forbes believes there is a simple truth when it comes to job creation in America: real solutions create real growth that generates real jobs. In order to make this happen, government needs to get out of the way<\/strong>.\u201d [Forbes’ website<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And outside of the hypocrisy, the GOP\u2019s jobs argument is spurious. Republicans are holding up a new industry-backed study<\/a> claiming the military spending cuts will mean a loss of nearly one million jobs. But experts<\/a> have<\/a> pointed out<\/a> the report\u2019s many flaws, mainly that government spending in non-defense sectors of the economy creates more jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The study is good for \u201cpolitical purposes, not very good analysis of the labor market,\u201d said<\/a> defense budget expert Gordon Adams. CATO expert Chris Preble said<\/a> the report shows that the industry is just \u201ctrying to save their profits.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also no evidence<\/a> that the military spending sequester will be \u201cdevastating<\/a>\u201d as some have argued and polls show<\/a> that an overwhelming majority of Americans favor cutting DOD\u2019s budget. But Republicans will most likely ignore these facts and fight to preserve the Pentagon\u2019s needlessly bloated budget, all while abandoning a central tenet of their party\u2019s ideology.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ben Armbruster, Thing Progress Jul 18, 2012 at 5:23 pm click here for original article Defense industry–backedRepublicans are so desperate to stave off the automatic military spending cuts that they\u2019re trying to scare Americans about job losses and an ensuing nose-diving economy should the military spending cuts hold. Except there\u2019s one problem. Republicans aren\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}