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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2012)
October 3, 2012____________________________ ; j [ ì o r t l a t t ò ( © b s e W e t ________________________________________ Page 9 A Mountain of Misleading Rhetoric The truth about Pentagon spending by S uzie D ershowitz T h ere's a debate raging about the fed eral budget, our na tional spending priori ties, and how best to protect our national security and our men and women on the front lines. With the U.S. war in Iraq officially over and our operations in Afghani stan drawing down, this is the per fect time to stop partisan squab bling and rethink the way we fund the Pentagon. Americans on both sides of the aisle agree that eco nomic security goes hand-in-hand with national security. A majority of us support cutting the defense bud get by 18 percent, or more than $ 100 billion, according to a recent Stimson Center study. It's time we started spending smarter on our military and weap ons. We need a sensible, bal anced, and long-term approach to national security. But all the fear-mongering about Pentagon budget cuts po tentially spurring massive job losses makes it hard to have a con versation about our national secu rity priorities. A mountain of mis leading rhetoric put forth by big Pentagon contractors — who are spending millions on lobbying and campaigns — has buried the facts. According to the Center for Re sponsive Politics, the top 10 gov ernment contractors spent a com bined total of more than $56.3 mil lion on lobbying expenditures and more than $9 million on campaign contributions last year. A number of these companies spending mil lions on expanding their undue in fluence collect most of their rev enues in taxpayer dollars. Now mem bers of Congress are parroting their talking points. The public has a right to know the truth. First, shelling out more money for the Pentagon budget doesn't necessarily mean more jobs. As my colleague Ben Freeman at the Project on Government Oversight demon strated in a recent report, the top five defense contractors were cut ting jobs while being awarded more taxpayer dollars between 2006 and 2011. Over this five-year period, total employment at companies such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing de clined as these military contracting giants thrived, not just in terms of federal contract collars but in over all financial performance. Appar ently these Beltway bandits have no qualms about letting workers go when it helps their bottom line. Meanwhile, major defense con tractors' top executives enjoy com pensation packages on par with Wall Street CEOs. The chief executives of Lockheed, Boeing, United Tech nologies, and Northrop Grumman all made between $22 and $27.6 mil lion in total 2011 compensation. So when contractors threaten to send thousands of layoff notices leading up to the 2012 election, it's clear they are playing politics with national security. Military contractors' capacity to launch such a large-scale campaign to defend their profits is symptom atic of underlying structural issues with the way the United States does national defense. The Pentagon's budget has con tinued to grow unchecked for de cades because our national secu rity policy is still mired in the Cold War industrial defense paradigm. The world has shifted, and the Pen tagon needs to make the transition towards leaner, smarter spending to face today's threats, like terrorism and cybersecurity. M ism anagem ent and Pentagon waste, not a lack of funding, are the real problem s. In fact, autho rizing less money may spur re form. Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on bujlding costly new w e a p o n s s y s te m s an d m o re nuclear lab construction projects we don't need, our m ilitary needs to reset its priorities. The bottom line is that when pri vate companies exert so much influ ence over the defense budget pro cess, they divert resources away from what our troops and veterans need. N ational security policy should aim squarely at protecting the American people, not giving taxpayer-financed subsidies to m ultibillion-dollar corporations. Spending smarter, not bigger, on defense will make us safer in the long run. Suzie Dershowitz is a public policy fellow at the Project on Gov ernment Oversight. Relationships are How People Get Along Winning marriage equality the wedding. I became engaged in the spring of 2004, the year when 11 states enacted anti-gay marriage measures in the general election, including my own state of Ohio. But much has changed since then. A shift in the polls shows a steady increase o f support for m arriage equality, particularly since the 2008 passage of Propo sition 8 in California. A Gallup poll last May showed that 53 per cent of Am ericans believe gay m arriage should be legal, up from 36 percent in 2006. What has changed? For one, same sex-m arriage is now legal in six states and the District of Co lumbia, accom plished m ostly by by R ev . M ichael SCHUENEMEYER My mother did not co n g ratu late m e w hen I a n nounced my e n g ag em en t. It wasn’t because she didn't like the person I was going to marry. It was because she was not comfortable with the idea of two men getting married, especially when one of them happened to be her son. It wasn’t that she wanted to deny me any of my civil rights or for me to be treated differently than anyone ^lse under the law. She was uncom fortable because this just didn’t fit her idea of marriage to the point she wasn’t even sure she could come to 'Porthmb © bseruer Established 1970 USPS 959-680 __________________________________ 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 E d it o r - in - C h ie f , P u b lis h e r : Charles H. Washington EDiroR.M ichael L e ig h to n A ssistant to P ublisher , P ublic R elations : C reative D irector : M a rk W a s h in g to n P a u l N e u fe ld t A ssistant to P ublisher , O ffice M anager /C iassifieds : A ssistant P ublisher : Lucinda Baldwin Leonard Latin A dvertising M anager , P ublic R elations : Tony Washington S taff W riter /P hotographer : Mindy Cooper P ostmaster : Send address changes to Portland Observer, PO Box3 1 3 7 , Portland, OR9 7 2 0 8 C A LL 5 0 3 -2 8 8 -0 0 3 3 F A X 503-2 8 8 -0 0 1 5 the legislative process. However, the main thing that has changed is that more people know someone who is sam e-gender loving. That same Gallup Poll reported that people who know someone who is gay are 20 percent more likely than others to support gay marriage. “Relationships are how people get along,’’ was the mantra of an agency I served while a seminarian. People are coming to recognize the importance of marriage equality for same-sex couples by encountering the people who are affected by the policies we, as voters, enact at the ballot. These relationships make the wcrth and dignity of every family real. These relationships bring to light the values of equality under the law and the pledge we make as The Portland O bserver w elcom es freelance submissions. M anuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design dis play ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the com position of such ad. © 2008 THE PORT LAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED, REPRO D U CTIO N IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PER MISSION IS PROHIBITED The Port land O bserv er--O reg o n ’s O ldest Multicultural Publication-is a member of the N ational N ew spaper A ssociation-- Founded in 1885, and The National Ad vertising R epresentative Am algam ated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association neyvs@pQrtlandobserver.com odi@ponlandobserver.com subscription@portlandobserver.com citizens of “liberty and justice for all.’’ What got my mother to my wed ding was our relationship (along with some advocacy from my sister, for which I’m deeply grateful). My mother’s love for me and her trust of my character proved more valuable than her discomfort. She also has come to recognize the deep love that my husband and I share, as well as the integrity of our relationship as we work to faithfully live the vocation of marriage. Both my parents love and support us and our right to marry. The political right has often used gay marriage as a wedge to divide the electorate, which is why I sus pect it is so prevalent in the platform of the Republican National Commit tee. But this tactic is losing its effectiveness as the values of rela tionships and equality serve to transform hearts and minds, bridg ing the divide. If marriage equality wins at the polls this November, and there is every reason to believe it will, rela tionships will play a major role. Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer is minster fo r lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns in the United Church o f Christ. 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