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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Dear Super Committee: Defense Contractors Are "Second To None" In Wasteful Spending

In what some are calling an "unprecedented" campaign, defense contractors as an industry bloc are fighting reductions in national security spending to preserve their place on the government gravy train. Spearheaded by the reportedly enlisted the help of LMG Inc., a Washington public affairs firm, the conservative Heritage Foundation, and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments to push its agenda. This is on top of at least The campaign’s website sets up a straw man by asserting that “extreme voices” are asking for massive cuts to national security, countering that “moderates are calling for a more careful approach that cuts waste and gets rid of things that don’t work or that we don’t need.”

Yet the Second to None campaign is the extreme voice, fighting to preserve a level of defense spending higher than at any point during the Cold War, the amount we spend. In fact, the U.S. spends more than five times as much on defense as China—the country with the second highest level of defense expenditures. The U.S. spends nearly as much on national security as the rest of the world combined. Even with significant cuts to defense spending, the U.S. will remain Second to None. As the U.S. faces a fiscal crisis and major conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are drawing to a close, it is only sensible that the U.S. should spend significantly less on defense.

1 comment:

  1. The "hawks" are afraid the gravy train will slow down....Just like Ron Paul says, these third world countries pose no threat to us and we waste trillions (with a "T") on the wars (plural!). Find the terrorists. Hunt them down and kill them with no mercy. AND their families, if thats what it takes. But, STOP spending trillions of our dollars to 'promote democracy' in places where they have NEVER had it, don't want it, and will not accept it. Don't even get me started on $600 hammers and $250 canteens.

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