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Liberals Planning No Cutback In War Spending Anytime Soon
ANYONE WHO THOUGHT JUST because you have “liberals” controlling the White House and Congress that the billions which go to the military-industrial-banking complex every year will be cut is in for a rude awakening. In a speech before the liberal Center for American Progress, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, laid out the plan for military spending in the years to come, and it doesn’t look like weapons makers will be tightening their belts any time soon.
Murtha lamented the mess the Bush administration will be leaving behind for the country, namely the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a military stretched to the breaking point. And while he did speak of a future climate where defense budgets will be “constrained,” he refused to go on record whether the Obama administration will reduce the size and scope of the military-industrial- banking complex by one nickel.
That is most likely because Murtha knows that appropriations for fiscal year 2009 have already been approved by Congress and that spending for 2010 is in the process of being drawn up. Capitol Hill’s leading periodical, The Hill, reported that, no matter which way the U.S. economy goes, budgets for 2009 and 2010 include “sizeable programs for the industry.”
While campaigning for the Democratic nomination in the fall of 2007, Barack Obama faced pressure from real liberals within his party to pledge to cut defense spending. Obama heard the message loud and clear, and in an October 2007 video message Obama promised to “cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. . . .” adding that he “will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems,” “will not weaponize space,” and “will slow our development of future combat systems.”
After Obama secured the nomination, these promises appear to have gone out the window. And now that he has won the election, Obama will likely feel compelled to pay back the tens of millions of dollars given to Democrats by arms companies and their army of lobbyists.
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(Issue # 52, December 29, 2008)
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