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Subscribe to RSSIn an era of more austere defense spending, all states are not equal.
With the specter of automatic defense cuts hanging over the supercommittee's deliberations, states that have benefited from the burst of post-Sept. 11 spending stand to be big losers.
In states like Texas, which are home to both big military bases and large defense manufacturing sectors, austerity will be hard to get used to, given the brisk growth in defense spending in the Bush era. The average annual growth rate in defense discretionary spending from 2000 to 2009 was 9 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In a speech Wednesday at the conservative think tank the Hudson Institute, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Armed Services Committee, made the case against the automatic spending cuts -- “sequestration,” in Washington jargon -- that would chop as much as $55 billion out of defense spending in fiscal year 2013 and about $500 billion over ten years, if the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction cannot come up with a plan to reduce future deficits. (The so-called supercommittee is up against a Nov. 23 deadline to report its recommendations.)
Defense spending would be hurt, but only if Congress allows the cuts to occur.
“I think there would be a furious effort to overturn those” automatic defense cuts, Cornyn said after his speech. He mentioned other GOP senators, Armed Services ranking member John McCain, Jon Kyl of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as vowing to rescind the automatic defense cuts.
Cornyn said, “I’m going to be all in” in their effort. “My hope is we don’t come to that” -- in other words, he hopes the super committee does devise a plan that spares defense and gets its savings from tax reform and reductions in future entitlement spending.
You can see why Texans such as Cornyn might have cause to worry.
Texas ranks first among the 50 states in Defense Department payroll ($19.8 billion in Fiscal Year 2010), third in Defense Department contracts (more than $30 billion in FY2010) and third in total defense Department spending ($54 billion in FY2010).
Lockheed Martin employs about 20,000 workers in the Lone Star State, but Texas is also home to dozens of smaller firms with defense contracts: Elcan Optical Technologies and Optex in Richardson, Texas; Aviall Services in Dallas, and many others. All of these firms could struggle in the new austerity.
“When I think about national security, I try not to be too parochial about it, but recognizing that it does have an impact on our state. We always like to brag that one out of every ten persons in uniform calls Texas home,” Cornyn said.
For instance, there are some 60,000 military and civilian personnel at Fort Hood in Texas, and the base costs more than $6 billion a year.
Cornyn said the automatic defense cuts -- combined with other cuts already mandated by the Budget Control Act and others put in motion by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates -– “could not help but have a dramatic negative impact on not only military personnel and preparedness, but on our state.”
In a visible reminder of the robust Pentagon budgets of the Bush era, in the audience for Cornyn’s speech Wednesday were two Bush administration veterans and architects of the Iraq invasion: Hudson Institute Senior Vice President Lewis “Scooter” Libby and former Defense Department official Doug Feith, now a senior fellow at Hudson.
“This should really be a time for rebuilding and retraining, and not retreating – but retreat is the only way to describe what would happen if our military forces are required to live under this sequestration process,” Cornyn said.
For example, the Army currently has 100 maneuver battalions, Cornyn said, but the current round of defense cuts, with sequester cuts added, could shrink that to 60 battalions. The Navy fleet could drop from 288 ships to 238, he said.
“Our military leadership is trained not to panic, but you can hear their frustration and you can hear grave concern in their voices….” Cornyn said. “They’re frustrated that under the sequestration process the cuts would be arbitrary and reckless because they would not reflect any strategic assessment of what military capabilities America really needs but only how much money is available.”
Underscoring Cornyn’s argument, Lockheed Martin spokesman Chris Williams said, “While we understand the difficult task for Congress and the special deficit committee as they develop a set of recommendations that address our nation's fiscal challenges, further cuts beyond the already mandated reductions put critical national security capabilities at risk.”
In his speech Cornyn cited growing threats from China such as its “carrier killer” ballistic missile that could destroy U.S. aircraft carriers. “China still has hundreds of millions of people living in poverty, yet they are making huge investments to upgrade their military forces.”
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Texas is a already a loser, besides they don't like tax payers money spent on jobs, cut it to the bone, let the private sector handle it.
Listen to what the good Senator from Texas says:
“China still has hundreds of millions of people living in poverty, yet they are making huge investments to upgrade their military forces.”
Hmmm, interesting. I guess Republican logic has it that America doesn't spend enough on military upgrades already and that we don't have enough people living in poverty. Odd, we spend almost as much on our military as the rest of the world (including China) combined. And lord knows Texas has a LOT of people living in poverty.
Boy, Cornyn gets ugly when his particular ox gets gored. You "teabaggers" keep screaming about cuts. You want spending "under control". Okay to cut spending on programs designed to support our elderly, young children, disabled and vets, but when it hits YOUR pet project or state, oh my the pain!
Man, that just came back to bite you in the, well, you know!
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
wooo...lib....soooie
Texas ranks THIRD in total defense spending, but FR slants this at Texas?
Why not mention #1 and #2?
And btw - don't these jobs trickle up as libbies are always crying.
And btw 2 - Doesn't Lockeed sell F-16 to 30 something countries? This, along with all the ancillary programs, isn't revenue that actually supports teachers and police and gov't workers?
How many bridges do we sell to other countries?
Can't have it both ways Bob, were broke remember. We don't have any money for butter, and now we don't have any money for guns.
Here's an idea for Teapublicans to avoid "impending defense cuts" -- Become team players with the USA as the team rather than putting your Party first. Compromise like the good old days, and agree to a balanced approach in which you give and not just take.
Heed yesterday's election results, the growing OWS movement, the swing in public sentiment and unpopularity of the Tea Party. Tick tock...
Republicons want to cut federal spending, except when its spending in their districts. Remember the jet engine that Boehner and Cantor tried to force into the budget over the objections of everyone in the Pentagon and over the objections of their own party.
Personally, I think our defense spending is bloated. Do we really need to spend more than the next 20 other countries in the world (including ALL of the major players in the last world war: China, Russia, Germany, England, France, Italy, and Japan) COMBINED. Shut down the wars. Shut down the over seas bases and bring them all home.
Forrest,
Why spend money on abortions and cowboy poetry when it cost Americans jobs down the road?
Why spend money for a temporary job working on a bridge when you have to lay off another American job down the road?
Why spend money on Obama's billionaire bundler buddies for their green projects in Finnland?
Why give Spainish companies, Russian companies, Chinese companies money when it cost American jobs?
Get the picture Forrest?
In the interest of humoring Bob, I did some quick research to determine who #1 and #2 are. The numbers I found are from 2004 but Texas is #3 on this list so I feel confident in assuming that #1 and #2 are the same in 2010.
#1 - California
#2 - Virginia
If I had to hazard a guess as to why they may top the list I'd have to guess that it's because they are home to, among other things, the two largest naval bases in the world in San Diego, CA and Norfolk, VA.
A valid question deserving a valid answer...
With Boeing moving to South Carolina, oh and another state with a lot of defense is Utah, it's probably safe to say that most defense cuts will affect red states more than blue states. Moving on...
The bottom line is all this could be defused if Teapublicans would work with Dems on revenue that would not hurt economic recovery. But the GOP/TP made their oaths to outside lobbyists and a pact to one another not to help the economy because that in turn would help the president. If the Teapublicans would just stop their treasonous sabotage, they could keep their precious war-mongering funds.
Noids,
Actually, pretty sure Virginia is #1.
Just a naval base, huh?
Well and that little funny shaped building called the Pentagon, and few air bases and whole bunch of other stuff that makes Defense the biggest industry in Virginia by far.
Nice try at marginalization though.
Speaking of marginalization .... just 62 little orders for F-16s, huh?
And what does a little ole Fighting Falcon cost ..... $70 million ...... so 62 X 70,000,000 is what $4.34 billion?
And what about the Taiwan order that Obama pissed away because he is a gutless wonder?
Shouldn't that be another $6 billion?
So $10.4 billion is nothing, huh?
And how many bridges have we sold to foreign countries for $10.4 billion?
My bad...I forgot about the Pentagon...and then there's probably some money going to Langley.
I'm glad you're not writing the DoD budget...the price tag on a new F16 is somewhere in the $18M-20M range (we'll split the difference and call it $19M)...so we're talking about $1.178B right now.
We pissed off China by agreeing to retro-fit Taiwan's existing F16 fleet. Since they bank-rolled our little play-date in Iraq I guess we can't step on their toes completely. Just keep this in mind next time we decide to show up in someone else's sandbox.
I don't get the joke.
Texas will be taking gubmint money if we spend it on defense??
Perry wouldn' t let that happen, would he?
Perry came out against the stimulus then used it to balance Texas' budget shortfall.
Don't look for ideological consistency from Perry. You need to understand the issues in order to remain intellectually consistent on them. Perry doesn't understand much of anything.
nisl: no intellectual honesty, no knowledge of issues, inconsistent approach to all issues... I think you are describing every single person running for the Republican nomination (except maybe Ron Paul.)
No! Not "The Sacred Cow"! You can't touch "The Sacred Cow"!
Are you calling Republicans Hindus?
snark
Hey noid this story isn't about Social Security or Medicare.
I'm aware of that...this story is about DoD...that's the Republican "Sacred Cow".
...or are you like the woman in this picture holding the sign that reads, "Cut Taxes Not Defense"?
4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ic06yijpqLE/TIGhYtOGhlI/AAAAAAAAAeM/baysxtGyz98/s1600/cut_taxes_not_defense.jpg
(...cause bombs are free, right?)
Damn right! One of these days they might get nuclear weapons, too, and then, look out!
Right, Mr. Cain?
good one but he knows where a woman's naughty place is....
Cornyn blasts out: “China still has hundreds of millions of people living in poverty, yet they are making huge investments to upgrade their military forces.”
============================================================================
One would have to assume that Mr. Cornyn doesn't seem to realize that America has millions of people living in poverty also, and he fails to mention that the U.S.A. spends more on it's military than China and the rest of the World combined, I mean damn, our Congress is completely comfortable with trying to make the average American worker pay off the entire national debt, while themselves, the military, the rich, and corporate America contribute nothing. Well pi$$ on them, they will find out just what a formidable adversary a determined and wronged American population can become if pushed too far.
Wbush, good point; well said.
20 million Americans are now considered the poorest of the poor, 6.7% of the populaion live below the official poverty level and Cornyn is worried about poverty in China. Want to keep defense spending high, tax the rich Sen Cornyn, otherwise shut the heck up.
As a wise President once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight D. Eisenhower.
sorry john you republicans started this whole cut cut cut,,,,so it looks like you're f*****ed f******ed f****ed, you guys never think ahead do you...enjoy the shared sacrifice texas.....
i sat at the polls for 5 hours with three teaparty people bored suburban housewives...
Cut them off! Cut them off! Cut them off! Texas needs to suffer like the rest of the country. After the cuts, we'll see how TX fairs!
no water and no military...and rick perry as you're governor he'll fix it....ha ha ha
Honestly considering how corrupt Congress has become, saturated with money from the military machine, corporate America, wall street and so on, is it even conceivable that D.C. could come up with a fair debt reduction plan where everyone in this country truly shared sacrifice? The government is lost and is beyond repair, anyone thinking otherwise is not being honest with themselves.
Why not cut the defense budget bring the troops home and put them to work rebuilding the country's infrastructure . Their already getting paid lets put them to work here at home . They would have to make sure their unionized or they couldn't do the work (government restriction) . We would get to keep the troops on the payroll incase a real war broke out not some manufactured war . The only thing that would have to be regulated would be the cost of materials because we all now how the government likes to pay several times the going rate for anything they purchase .
leemonk,
No, only throw those out that are not helping our country move forward. Keep those who are competent in Congress, of whom many still remain. Support those who truly are willing to serve the middle class and the poor through job creation. Toss out those who only give lip service to creating jobs. Maintain those who are willing to stop subsidizing the wealthy through tax cuts. Get rid of those who have helped the rich more than triple their annual income to the tune of $345 million as their taxes have been cut by 40 percent (Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, "How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich"). Above all, retain those individuals who want to ensure greater equality of wealth distribution for the middle class and the poor, thus making our country healthy and whole again.
Sorry Tax payers are the big losers.
No need for wasteful spending and 4 wars with no hope of winning.
STILL have 10 to 50,000 troops in Vietnam. WASTE War was over 40 years ago.
IT never ENDS................
Oh, my! What will our Governor Perry do if Congress cuts off one of the stable legs of our Texas economy, military bases and defense manufacturing, with only the other stable legs of oil and natural gas remaining? How will he then claim he performed the "Texas Miracle" in job creation? Will he then ask congressional members of his Party to break their pledge and raise taxes on the rich and wealthy to deal with the deficit, and thus reduce cuts in military and defense spending? Or, will he remain silent and take orders from Grover "Adolf" Norquist like other members of his Party? Stay tuned!
.
The military cuts, along with cuts to Medicare and Medicaid (which they are not mentioning) were meant to be a doomsday motivator.
If the super committee does their job, none of this will happen. Instead of looking for ways around it, tell the committee to do their job! Neither side should get their way, that is the nature of compromise.
Tis really difficult to balance the budget when HALF of the expenses are sacred. The USA does not need to spend more than all the other countries of the world combined to "defend" the USA.
End the misadventures called war.
Close the overseas bases.
End the Bush tax cuts.
Then, just maybe, the problems we have will be solvable.
GOP will try to reverse the mandatory spending cuts. Dems need to hold firm to let them feel the consequence of intransigence.
The GOP corporate sponsors will squeal WTF.
Seriously,
I'm laughing out loud at the complete and utter failure the Republicans are; for both the United States and those within in their own party. If there ever was a time where the Democrats should just say "No' it's now.
Actually I'd say Hell No! You wanted cuts...we'll give you cuts. Deal with it.