The Dirty Little Red State Secret: Welfare Disguised as Defense Spending
September 9, 2011By Sarah Jones
politicususa.com
Charged with finding the cuts to balance the budget for the debt ceiling debacle that Republicans built, Senator Kyl and his Republican friends cry foul when the cuts come near home.
If you’re wondering why Republicans are whining about possible cuts to the defense budget in the Super Committee that wouldn’t even be in place had Republicans not held the country hostage over raising the debt ceiling, one of the main reasons is because they hail from districts and or states that rely on military spending, or they are chairman of the Armed Services Committee or the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Charged with finding $1.5 trillion in cuts to reduce the budget, Jon Kyl (R-AZ) threatened to quit the Super Committee today if defense cuts were on the table. At a luncheon held by the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, CNN reports that Kyl said cuts should come from “entitlement” programs like Medicare and Social Security, not defense spending.
Kyl was joined in outrage by Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Allen West (R-FL), neither of whom are actually on the Super Committee.
Lindsey Graham stepped up to tell the group that defense cutting would be a “philosophical shift” he would have no part of and that it “pissed him off beyond belief” that defense would be secondary in Washington.
Then West spoke about how he’s seen the results of defense cutting — rationing toilet paper in the barracks — and he’s worried that the US isn’t attending to future possible threats. West said, “When I was a battalion executive officer, we (would) have to start budgeting toilet paper in barracks.” He did go on to list what he deemed more serious problems with cutting defense spending, “We have folks, friends of mine, that were in armored units that could not go out and practice tank tactics. They had to use golf carts to practice tank tactics, because, number one, we couldn’t afford the fuel. Number two, we couldn’t afford the spare parts.”
The frame of the Republican argument for no defense cutting is “safety” and “threats,” implying that President Obama doesn’t care about the safety of this country because he is looking to save a few bucks from the defense budget. I’m not sure how out of touch and desperate the Republican base is with reality, but President Obama has kept this nation safer than George W Bush, and he got Osama, which the Republican President didn’t manage to do. In light of these facts, attempts to paint this President as weak on national security because he won’t let defense spending go wild don’t carry much weight.
While the three Republicans say they’re concerned about national security, the truth is that their states rank highest in the nation as districts and states that are supported by big military spending (read: government spending).
Here’s the list of the twelve members on the Super Committee, courtesy of Center for Responsive Politics:
• Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee
• Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senate Democrat’s conference secretary and chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
• Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the Senate Minority Whip
• Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the former president of the conservative Club for Growth
• Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the former head of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush
• Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
• Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
• Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the conference chair of House Republicans
• Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House Assistant Minority Leader
• Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the ranking Democratic member of the House Budget Committee
• Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee
Looking at the names on the Super Committee, we have two Republican senators from states that rank among the highest in the nation on military spending (Kyl in Arizona, Toomey in Pennsylvania) and one House Republican in South Carolina (dependent on military spending as well). The Democrats aren’t immune from defense spending. In terms of political donations from the industry to candidates, historically it’s given more to Republicans but in the last two election cycles, it’s been an even spread due to the fact that industries give to the party in power. However, we don’t hear Democrats saying cuts must come from “entitlement” programs like Social Security in order to defend some defense spending.
Jon Kyle from Arizona, which is 6th in the country for DOD procurement and salaries.
South Carolina serves as a model for just how dependent certain states are on military spending, having lost two major bases in the ’90's. South Carolina, from which Lindsey Graham hails, is 9th in the nation for military wages. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, Graham holds the teetering economy of South Carolina in his hands, especially after the defeat last year of U.S. Rep. John Spratt. Spratt protected South Carolina’s economy as the second-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the House Budget Committee. Now they are stuck with a Republican freshman. In addition, South Carolina has suffered the closure of two of its military bases (Charleston Naval Base and Myrtle Beach Air Force Base) and certainly with their abysmal economy can hardly afford to lose more jobs or a driver of their economy.
South Carolina is so concerned about the potential loss of a base or even cuts to one of their remaining bases that the Chamber of Commerce gathered in January to confer on how best to protect the state from further losses. The Sun News reported in January of this year, “Studies have shown Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, Fort Jackson in Columbia and McEntire in Eastover pump $7.1 billion a year into the Midlands economy. Military installations around Charleston add an additional $4.7 billion a year to the state’s economy. Beaufort’s three installations add $1.2 billion a year, according to the reports. The Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce today will hold meetings to develop a strategy to protect Fort Jackson and McEntire Joint National Guard Base during $150 billion in Defense Department cuts over the next five years.”
And Florida, Allen West’s residence, is 4th in the nation in DOD procurements and salaries, and 6th in the nation for active military and DOD civilian salaries.
And that’s why you hear Kyle and others threatening to quit the Super Committee/Super Congress. Cuts sounded so good to the Tea Party base! But cuts are only good as long as they are cuts to you and yours, which are called “entitlements.” Cuts to out of control defense spending are called “a threat” to the country.
FactCheck.Org reported, “The Defense Contract Audit Agency, the Pentagon’s internal audit division, identified tens of millions in questionable and unsupported costs charged by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root Inc. to the federal government in contracts to provide services in Iraq.” But Republicans knocked down an amendment by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California seemingly aimed at contractors like Halliburton which would have prevented awarding contracts to companies who had charged 100,000 more than was reasonable for services in Iraq.
Those hundreds and thousands of wasted dollars spent by defense contractors are apparently not a concern to Republicans, even though they are worried enough about the budget to hold the entire global financial world hostage by not raising the debt ceiling without an agreement to cut the deficit. That was just weeks ago, and yet now, we can’t cut spending for Republican districts and states that rely on federal (read: government welfare) money for their economies. But we can cut salaries for teachers, kill unions, and cut Social Security and Medicare (after all, that’s just your medical health).
If your children are starving and have no medical care and your grandma just got kicked out of her house because the Republicans raised the property taxes so they could give the corporations in the state a break, well, that’s shared sacrifices. Cuts are for poor people, starving babies and the elderly. Oh, and union workers. Cuts are not for the defense budget, according to Senator Kyl, whose job as an elected official is to bring home the federal defense pork to his red state. This could also be called another way in which blue states often fund red states, which certainly could be called welfare. It is most certainly living off of the teat of big government, and coming from the rugged Reagan individualists who didn’t keep this country safe, I have to wonder just how much longer this charade can continue.
After all, citing our general safety as the main concern implies a protection of human life. The same human lives that Kyl et al think are worthless enough to starve to death in the “greatest country on Earth.” Yes, Kyl is all concerned about “entitlements” like Social Security, the new “Ponzi” scheme. So concerned that he might take his toys and go home.
And isn’t that a Republican for you? His way or the highway. You take the cuts, he’ll take the pork, thank you very much. |
