As the discussion of stimuloids has ranged far and wide, I've wondered why Navy shipbuilding hasn't received more play. There are lots of good reasons to dramatically increase funding for new ships. First, it really is a good long-term investment. As anyone with an old car knows, older vehicles cost more to maintain as they age. Our Navy is very old indeed, with much of it built during the Reagan administration. Newer ships would reduce outyear budgets by reducing maintenance costs.
Ship construction creates high-paying, American jobs. We don't import ships from China, you know. Ship construction would also take very little effort to increase as a professional acquisition organization already exists and could accelerate ship construction with a minimum of overhead and practically no delay.
So what do we get? A request for a 10% cut in the Defense budget. Since most of the DoD budget is fixed, providing salaries, pensions and health care, there's not many places to find these kinds of cuts other than procurement. Instead of increasing shipbuilding, we will practically stop it.
American workers will be laid off, maintenance costs will continue to rise and instead we will blast a firehose of money at states like California who will do who knows what with the money.
That's change you can believe in!
This just shows how naive our new POTUS is. Or should I just come out and say it: He's dangerously stupid. Cutting the defense budget when we've got wars in two countries! The only motivation I can imagine is his desire to be loved by all. I generally try not to hate anyone, but in his case, I'm considering making an exception.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that the Senate will restore much of the money. They're very sensitive to job losses in their states. Given how little control The One had over Pelosi and her stimulus bill, I suspect that the legislature will just ride right over him.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's my optimistic view, at least.
KT, I've shied away from this subject as I'm personally vested in DOD shipbuilding.
ReplyDeleteI share your sentiments.
It would appear this is one campaign promise that he will keep.
It's ironic that the one segment of the federal government that Obama wishes to cut into is the one directly chartered by the Constitution.
Not only a function of Government that's actually authorized, it's one that largely offers the sort of highly-skilled jobs that can't be sent overseas. A lot of procurement comes from overseas (nobody in the US makes PCs any more), but the integration, training, and support are still done here.
ReplyDeleteI guess we can all get ObamaJobs digging windmill holes with the engineers formerly of Microsoft...
KT, Congressional Quarterly via Hot Air is reporting that Obama is actually increasing the defense budget by 8%.
ReplyDelete