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!
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