Oh, look, what’s this in my Times Argus today? (paywalled on the TA site but available for free here) It’s a story about how the pending cuts in defense spending will savage Vermont’s economy.
A conservative military think-tank based in Washington, D.C., says Vermont stands to lose out on more than $100 million in federal revenue next year if Congress doesn’t avert looming cuts in defense spending.
Hmm, sounds serious. Because the White House and Congress failed to reach agreement on spending and taxes last fall, automatic cuts will take effect later this year. Which means, among many other things, $600 billion in defense cuts over the next ten years.
(Which is a small drop in a very large bucket, but never mind.)
The alarm was sounded by the DC-based Center for Security Policy. We’ll get to their “credentials” in a moment, but first… how did CSP arrive at this “more than $100 million” figure?
Travis Korson, manager of public information for the Center for Security Policy, says if defense cuts of that magnitude are spread evenly, percentage-wise, across the country, Vermont contractors will see awards fall by $122 million annually.
Gosh, how scientific. They took the $600 billion and divided it among the states on a per-capita basis. See, nobody actually knows what cuts will be made because they haven’t been made yet. This CSP “study” took about five minutes with a calculator, and is based on a completely faulty assumption.
But it’s got the business community in a tizzy.
“We absolutely are concerned about what might happen,” says Chris Carrigan, vice president of business development for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
After the jump: why nobody should be the least bit concerned.
I could spend some time revisiting the irony of conservatives suddenly being freaked-out about cutting government spending, the abundant evidence that defense spending is a particularly inefficient means of economic stimulus, and the lack of attention to how other spending cuts will affect Vermont’s economy. But let’s take that as read and cut to the punchline.
The Times Argus piece correctly identifies CSP as a “conservative” group. But it fails to identify the “genius” who runs this “think” tank.
Frank Gaffney, Jr.
Ah yes, Frank Gaffney, neoconservative assclown. The guy who’s accused President Obama of being secretly Muslim and having a secret plan to impose Sharia law in America. The guy who sounded the alarm about the new logo of the Missile Defense Agency being a combination “of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo” when, in fact, the logo was designed during the Bush administration.
And yes, the guy who’s questioned whether Barack Obama is a natural born citizen.
And yes, the guy who claimed (in 2009, people — in 2009!) that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing.
And yes, the guy who asserted in 2011 that the Conservative Political Action Committee had “come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.” The Conservative Political Action Committee!
And yes, the guy who, in 2003, called on the US military to “take out” the Al Jazeera news network.
I could go on, but I think you get the point. He’s a nut.
Y’know, I’m old enough to remember when the term “think tank” actually meant something. The Rand Corporation, the Brookings Institution. Now, any idiot with a website and letterhead can open an institute or a center and put out press releases and get taken seriously by the media. This article is stupid and pointless and a waste of the Times Argus’ extremely limited resources.
…BLURT has been following you on Sorrell.
there’s some serious pork in the defense budget if they are even considering cuts. It’s probable twice that amount could be cut with ease.
It would fun to see the reaction of an employee of New England Woodcraft, in Forestdale, a recipient of defense revenue, to the news that the average salary of people employed by defense money is $71k. It would be interesting to know the amount that New England Woodcraft receives compared to the amount they pay their employees.
“Center for Security Policy.” Something about that just screams conservative lobbyist.
The right has really painted themselves into an ideological box. There is no rational way to defend refusing to cut the hugely engorged defense budget while insisting we slash social safety nets rather than restoring fair taxation of the wealthiest bracket.
Way back when social security was established, social safety nets were recognized to be the prudent way to avoid social unrest and revolution.
Now the Republican’s are indulging in Peter Pan thinking. They’ll never grow up; and mind-numbingly dumb math tricks are the way they avoid facing reality.
Well, now that the Conservatives and ‘Democrats’ are eliminating all non-military spending, the Pentagon budget will be all that’s left. If we don’t spend on the military, then all state’s economies will lose.
War Profiteering is now the only legitimate business in America.
And catching bullets for the CEO class is the only job American Youth can get anymore.
…their “Think Tank” is actually a Waterboard.
Think Tank (and bombers, and drones, and F35s (coming soon to an airport near you!), and missile defense shields…)