The T Word - Part 3 - Who’s Jobs Are They?

You got a job? Congratulations. You are like most of our country. Working to live.  About 7% of us work for the government in a direct way. Even more work in the private sector for government contractors. This has been in the news lately, due to the cuts that are going to be implemented in January 2013. Yet another part of our fiscal cliff is that not only will taxes be raised but the government will cut money to contractors. These cuts will be about 1.2 trillion over a seven year period, starting in January.

Now usually the right wing is all for that, except that $500 billion dollars in cuts will cost jobs in the defense industry. That includes quite a few jobs here in Tucson at Raytheon Missile Systems. They are crying in their leather seats about how unfair it is.

I do find it ironic that they are all for cuts unless it is for defense. I agree that the defense of our country is important, but the cold war is over. We are only fighting small regional conflicts and we need to be a powerful but more flexible and nimble fighting force. We also have allies, many allies who have our backs when we have a serious issue that needs to be resolved. Remember the first Iraq war? So, last year it was Libya. Last year and this year it is Syria. These are small countries, we do not need to maintain a large fighting force for this. We have left Iraq, and are leaving Afghanistan soon. We never should have even invaded Iraq and we should have put those forces to better use in Afghanistan because that place is a huge military quagmire. Yes, there is still terrorism but having a large and expensive fighting force for them since Osama Bin Laden is dead, it is like swatting a fly with a ballistic missile.

My point is we are finishing our large scale battles. Some are rattling their sabers about Iran, but I hope to God that gets resolved by it's own people, because when we get involved, it gets complicated and expensive.

Back to what I wanted to talk about: government job cuts. It seems like there is a disconnect between anti-large government groups and their concern for the economy. They say: “Cut spending now! But the unemployment rate is too high! And lower our taxes!” Sorry folks, but you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

When you cut spending someone is losing their job, and maybe they will get a private sector job right away, but maybe not. That adds to the unemployment rate, which worsens our economy. So even if we are scaling back our defense or any other department, we should do it more slowly, to help our economy recover.

As Senator McCain says "Now, I agree strongly that we could have reductions in spending in both defense and non-defense, but it must be done with a scalpel, not a meat ax."

Now, I don't know if those 1.2 trillion cuts will be made or if congress will kick that can down the road. To “kick that can” would help our current economy, but it would also hurt our future. Soon, I am going to give what I hope could be a solution. Not that anyone would listen, cause what I would propose would hurt everyone. Yes, a compromise is in mind and something that would have to take decades and would span legislative and presidential eras. We have the need, we just need the political will.

I would like to end with a political cartoon which I find especially funny because I am somewhat of a political satirist and am not paid anything for it. My husband pays our bills and because he works for the University of Arizona doing biochemistry research, we depend on the federal government for that rather small paycheck. So you may see why cuts to the government can directly effect our lives.

It is a sad day when this stuff can't be made up: a story about a country that wants huge tax cuts but has a huge debt and deficit. I swear nobody would believe me!