{"id":6900,"date":"2010-08-23T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T22:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=6900"},"modified":"2010-08-18T21:04:22","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T19:04:22","slug":"america%e2%80%99s-biggest-jobs-program-%e2%80%94-the-u-s-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2010\/08\/america%e2%80%99s-biggest-jobs-program-%e2%80%94-the-u-s-military\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Biggest Jobs Program \u2014 the U.S. Military"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s biggest \u2014 and only major \u2014 jobs program is the U.S. military.
\n<\/em>
\nOver 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with everything from weapons to utensils. (I\u2019m not even including all the foreign contractors employing non-US citizens.)<\/p>\n

If we didn\u2019t have this giant military jobs program, the U.S. unemployment rate would be over 11.5 percent today instead of 9.5 percent.<\/p>\n

And without our military jobs program personal incomes would be dropping faster. The Commerce Department reported Monday the only major metro areas where both net earnings and personal incomes rose last year were San Antonio, Texas, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. \u2014 because all three have high concentrations of military and federal jobs.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an argument for more military spending. Just the opposite. Having a giant undercover military jobs program is an insane way to keep Americans employed. It creates jobs we don\u2019t need but we keep anyway because there\u2019s no honest alternative. We don\u2019t have an overt jobs program based on what\u2019s really needed.<\/p>\n

For example, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Monday his plan to cut spending on military contractors by more than a quarter over three years, congressional leaders balked. Military contractors are major sources of jobs back in members\u2019 states and districts. California\u2019s Howard P. \u201cBuck\u201d McKeon, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, demanded that the move \u201cnot weaken the nation\u2019s defense.\u201d That\u2019s congress-speak for \u201cover my dead body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates simultaneously announced closing the Joint Force Command in Norfolk, Virginia, that employs 6,324 people and relies on 3,300 private contractors. This prompted Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webb, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to warn that the closure \u201cwould be a step backward.\u201d Translated: \u201cNo chance in hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates can\u2019t even end useless weapons programs. That\u2019s because they\u2019re covert jobs programs that employ thousands.<\/p>\n

He wants to stop production of the C-17 cargo jet he says is no longer needed. But it keeps 4,000 people working at Boeing\u2019s Long Beach assembly plant and 30,000 others at Boeing suppliers strategically located in 40 states. So despite Gates\u2019s protests the Senate has approved ten new orders.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s still not enough to keep all those C-17 workers employed, so the Pentagon and Boeing have been hunting for foreign purchasers. The Indian Air Force is now negotiating to buy ten, and talks are underway with several other nations, including Oman and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Ever wonder why military equipment is one of America\u2019s biggest exports? It\u2019s our giant military jobs program in action.<\/p>\n

Gates has also been trying to stop production of a duplicate engine for the F-25 joint Strike Fighter jet. He says it isn\u2019t needed and doesn\u2019t justify the $2.9 billion slated merely to develop it.<\/p>\n

But the unnecessary duplicate engine would bring thousands of jobs to Indiana and Ohio. Cunningly, its potential manufacturers Rolls-Royce and General Electric created a media blitz (mostly aimed at Washington, D.C. where lawmakers wold see it) featuring an engine worker wearing a \u201cSupport Our Troops\u201d T-shirt and arguing the duplicate engine will create 4,000 American jobs. Presto. Despite a veto threat from the White House, a House panel has just approved funding the duplicate.<\/p>\n

By the way, Gates isn\u2019t trying to cut the overall Pentagon budget. He just wants to trim certain programs to make room for more military spending with a higher priority.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s budget \u2014 and its giant undercover jobs program \u2014 keeps expanding. The President has asked Congress to hike total defense spending next year 2.2 percent, to $708 billion. That\u2019s 6.1 percent higher than peak defense spending during the Bush administration.<\/p>\n

This sum doesn\u2019t even include Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, nuclear weapons management, and intelligence. Add these, and next year\u2019s national security budget totals about $950 billion.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a major chunk of the entire federal budget. But most deficit hawks don\u2019t dare cut it. National security is sacrosanct.<\/p>\n

Yet what\u2019s really sacrosanct is the giant jobs program that\u2019s justified by national security. National security is a cover for job security.<\/p>\n

This is nuts.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be better to have a jobs program that created things we really need \u2014 like light-rail trains, better school facilities, public parks, water and sewer systems, and non-carbon energy sources \u2014 than things we don\u2019t, like obsolete weapons systems?<\/p>\n

Historically some of America\u2019s biggest jobs programs that were critical to the nation\u2019s future have been justified by national defense, although they\u2019ve borne almost no relation to it. The National Defense Education Act of the late 1950s trained a generation of math and science teachers. The National Defense Highway Act created millions of construction jobs turning the nation\u2019s two-lane highways into four- and six-lane Interstates.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is the way to convince Republicans and blue-dog Democrats to spend more federal dollars putting Americans back, and working on things we genuinely need: Call it the National Defense Full Employment Act.
\n______________________<\/em><\/p>\n


\nRobert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written twelve books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. http:\/\/robertreich.org<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

GO TO ORIGINAL \u2013 INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s biggest \u2014 and only major \u2014 jobs program is the U.S. military. Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with everything from weapons to utensils. (I\u2019m not even including all the foreign contractors employing non-US citizens.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}