Greenwald -- Panetta Starts Singing Contractors’ Tune After Closed-Door Meeting

[Donnachaidh]

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/09/16/panetta-starts-singing-contractors-tune-after-closed-door-meeting/

Two days ago, while representatives of war profiteers were on the Hill trying to push elected officials to protect their profit margins from the deficit committee, heads of the war industry met in a closed-door meeting with Defense Secretary Panetta. The next day, the war contractors held a press conference to try to spin away the fact that military spending costs jobs compared to other ways of spending the money. And today, Panetta and his subordinates came out swinging with the same bogus spin on “jobs.” Panetta says that cuts to the Pentagon budget that would be triggered if the deficit committee doesn’t produce a plan that passes Congress could cause the jobless rate to jump 1 percent.

Why, it’s almost like they planned the whole thing.

Panetta and his counterparts in the war industry can play Chicken Little all they want about war budget spending cuts, but they can’t change the simple fact that military spending is terrible at creating jobs, according to a 2009 study by the Political Economy Research Institute. In fact, of the areas of government spending studied by PERI, military spending was the worst at creating jobs. That means that no matter what nightmare scenario Panetta throws out there on possible job losses related to war budget cuts, the alternatives will always be worse.

The deficit committee is a zero-sum game. They are required by law to propose a plan by the end of November that would reduce the deficit by a set amount. That means the committee will slash some area of government spending. Since every other kind of spending out there creates more jobs than military spending, if Panetta succeeds in pushing the deficit committee to create a plan that cuts government spending but shields the Pentagon, more jobs will be killed in the economy as a whole.

More at the link --

[DCKit]

1. Not only are they horrible at creating jobs...

but weapons have no positive, lasting benefits - they only do one thing, and that's to kill. Use them once, and they're gone forever. Compare a bomb or bullet to any durable consumer good (cars, tractors, solar panels, windmills, refrigerators, stoves, books, etc...) and you'll get the idea.

The U.S. is in the wrong business.

[bemildred]

2. Panetta is a tool, and War is a racket.

Having worked in "defense" for two decades, I can guarantee you they waste money better and faster than anybody.