Military Spending is NOT a Jobs Program!!!

Friends,

While people are out occupying Wall Street the people on War Street, which is essentially the same entity, are busy maintaining War Street's Full Spectrum Dominance of the U.S. economy.  As the Senate's Supercommittee meets to figure out just where to cut the war industry, that same industry is waging a slick campaign to derail any "defense" cuts.

Second to None, a slick Website funded by the Aerospace Industries Association, spells out, in no uncertain terms, the economic doom we face should Congress make deep cuts in defense-related spending (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!!!).   

On the other hand, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, assistant research professor at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and co-author of the report “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: An Updated Analysis,” Garrett-Peltier said on October 26th in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, “My calculations show that the arms industry’s claims about increased unemployment are vastly exaggerated. A billion dollars spent on military production created about 11,000 jobs, compared to about 17,000 from clean energy, 19,000 from health care, and 29,000 from education.”

Data presented to House Armed Services Committee on October 26th

Miriam Pemberton, a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, also testified at the same committee hearing: “This committee needs to get back to the task of figuring out how much we need to spend to keep our country safe, not pushing unlimited military spending as a jobs program.”

To whose voice will the Senate give greater weight - the academics or those who stand to reap huge profits while driving our economy to ruin through the inflationary effect of war spending? We need to keep sending a clear message to the Supercommittee, and indeed every member of Congress - Cut war spending, not human needs!  Click here to send your suggestions to the Supercommittee.

Let's cut through the smoke and mirrors.  Don't let the war profiteers pull the wool over everyone's eyes.  Take action now.

Peace,

Leonard

Click here to read a brief Fact Sheet based on the study cited in this post: WHAT KINDS OF FEDERAL SPENDING CREATE THE MOST GOOD JOBS?

P.S. - Many thanks to the Institute for Public Accuracy for the news release presenting the data used in this blog post.