Hullabaloo

Thursday, September 20, 2012

 
Defense contractors vs the parasites

by digby

Let the battle begin:

Defense advocates say the Pentagon has already paid its fair share in deficit reduction and next year’s Congress will have no choice but to focus on the biggest parts of the federal budget, including entitlements.

“Regardless of who wins, the big deal will have tax increases and spending cuts,” said one defense lobbyist, who asked not to be identified. “The ratio will just be different. With taxes playing a smaller role in a Republican plan, entitlement programs like Medicare will have to play a bigger one to protect defense.”

The defense lobbyist said it’s just too soon to tell what lawmakers might settle on as a potential alternate deal. “Any number being floated for additional defense cuts is complete conjecture,” he said. But the lobbyist did say he thought tea party lawmakers could go along with an alternative deal.

They’re content as long as money comes from somewhere else, he said. “They’re just concerned about cutting; they don’t care where it comes from.”

“It’s time to find the cuts somewhere else,” the lobbyist said. “The defense community should be more outspoken on entitlements.” That could include the politically sensitive “entitlements” included in the defense budget, including pay and benefits for troops — another reason a deal would have to come after the election and perhaps early in the tenure of a new Congress.

My sense from Democrats I speak to is that they are disengaged with this at the moment, relying on a gut belief that Barack Obama will never abandon the safety net. I don't know where this comes from but among those who are not flat out deficit hawks who want this to happen (and there are many in the Democratic party) this starry-eyed view of White House leadership on this issue seems to be fairly pervasive.

I just saw Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post assure the MSNBC audience that there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes so there's a good possibility that a deal will be made. It would be really great if the people were involved somehow in such momentous decisions but I guess we should be comforted by the fact that the defense industry is in there looking after out interests for us.

I think it might be a good idea to enlist the veterans on this one. It looks like they are slated to be thrown on the human sacrifice pyre along with everyone else.

Update: This is good, although I think we knew that this was the deal when Joe Biden made his "gaffe" by saying there would be no cuts in social security as part of a Grand Bargain. But 28 Senators aren't enough.  Notably Dick Durbin didn't sign, which is seen as a sort of proxy for the White House.

On the other hand, I think there's a fair chance at this point that they'll succeed in keeping SS off the chopping block in the Grand Bargain negotiating sessions.  This will be the sop to the libs.  But keep your eye on what's left: Medicare and poor, poor Medicaid.

And don't think they won't come back for another bite at the big Kahuna even if it gets left out of this big deal.  There is a looming shortfall and there's no way they aren't going to do everything they can to use that to reduce benefits one way or the other.

.


digby 9/20/2012 04:30:00 PM