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
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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
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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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