Defense Secretary Panetta: Wrong on Military Spending & Defense chief Panetta warns lawmakers that cutting military too deeply would be devastating 13OKT11

Sec of Defense Leon Panetta is a liar, totally controlled by the greedy corporations of the American military-industrial complex. He could save billions by cutting the wasteful, bloated and ineffective government contracts with these corporations. These corporations milk the Pentagon, and so the U.S. taxpayers for billions of dollars in cost overruns for weapons systems so behind schedule they are outdated by the time they are delivered or don't perform as they are supposed to. Other contractors are awarded contracts "managed" through fraud and corruption, which are then subcontracted multiple times to the point it is impossible for any auditor to actually verify what OUR money was spent on. And the contractors guarding American embassies and diplomats and other American facilities around the world are nothing but fronts for thugs, mercenaries, drunks and some are even involved in providing children for sex as part of the bribery, fraud, graft and corruption they commit while representing the United States. They are a disgrace as are many of the so called "intelligence" companies who have been awarded contracts paying way to much for the "services" they provide. We aren't getting what we are paying for with most of these contracts, but the contractors, and not the actual men and women in uniform, are who Panetta is fighting for. Check out this video from BraveNew Foundation and the article from the Washington Post.....and for more information on this check out my earlier post on this 

THE WAR BUDGET IS BURNING DOWN OUR ECONOMY 8SEP11

Giving Them Hell, THE FIGHT AGAINST THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN 17SEP11

Pentagon Ignores Child Porn in its Ranks 3AUG10

Vodka Butt-Shot Contractor STILL Guarding the Kabul Embassy 17FEB11

America's Biggest Jobs Program -- the U.S. Military 11AUG10

$960 BILLION IN DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FAT 25AUG10

 Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is flagrantly advocating for war profiteers at the expense of real security for the American people. He's trying to browbeat Congress and other officials into continuing to send huge sums of our money to war profiteers who are killing jobs and ripping off the taxpayer. Our new video busts Panetta's scare tactics and talking points--please watch it and share it.

Huge military budgets cost jobs. That's an established fact. The corporations like Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman and General Dynamics that make billions every year selling the Pentagon super-expensive and often useless weaponry don't care about the effects of their profiteering. They just want to keep the gravy train rolling (For example, Lockheed Martin's CEO made $21.9 million last year, with most of the money coming from your taxes.). These contractors held a closed-door meeting with Panetta on September 13, and since then, he's parroted their untrue talking points and warned of "doomsday" if elected officials make even modest cuts to the bloated, corruption-filled war budget.

Panetta repeated more misleading spin when he testified before Congress this week. War spending kills jobs and productivity in the economy, but Panetta recently claimed just the opposite. Even the largest cuts to the military budget on the table in deficit reduction talks would simply return us to spending at 2007 levels--which was the highest level ever at the time--but Panetta strangely claims this is "doomsday."
We don't need to spend six times China's military budget on war to keep America safe, and the last thing our economy needs right now is more job-killing spending on war profiteers.

Please watch our video and share it with your friends as soon as you can. Don't let Panetta and the war industry get away with misleading Congress again.
Your financial support makes our effort possible. Thank you for helping us stand strong against the war industry and the Pentagon's spin campaign.
Sincerely,

Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team

P.S. After you watch our video and share it with your friends, join War Costs on Facebook.

Defense chief Panetta warns lawmakers that cutting military too deeply would be devastating

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Defense leaders and members of Congress drew a line in the sand Thursday, saying the Pentagon must be spared from any budget cuts beyond an initial plan to slash at least $450 billion over the next 10 years.
The military, they said, must not take even deeper cuts — a looming threat if lawmakers fail to agree on $1.2 trillion in federal budget savings by Thanksgiving and instead allow automatic cuts to kick in.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said President Barack Obama shares his view that the Pentagon should be shielded from any additional budget cutting.
Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pounded home their message that further cuts would create national security risks and devastate the military.
“I don’t say that as scare tactics, I don’t say it as a threat, it’s a reality,” Panetta said. He said the initial $450 billion reduction will “take us to the edge” but any more than that would hollow out the force and “badly damage our capabilities for the future.”
Despite questions from the committee members, Panetta and Dempsey provided no details on any planned spending cuts and they gave no specifics on how U.S. military strategy might be affected. They said they are still reviewing the issues.
The only new hint came when Dempsey opened the door for trimming the troubled F-35 fighter jet program. He told lawmakers that developing and building three versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — one each for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — creates fiscal challenges for the department, and he suggested it may not be affordable.
During the early part of the hearing, eight protestors were arrested by Capitol police when they began shouting anti-war chants. Seven were charged with disruption of Congress and one was charged with simple assault.
During a news conference after the hearing, Republicans on the panel echoed the plea to spare defense from further reductions.
“We’re saying: No more cuts,” said Rep Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., the committee chairman.
And Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, highlighted Panetta’s statement earlier that Obama shares his view that there should be no further cuts.
“I think it’s important for the president as commander in chief to make his views known,” Thornberry said. He said it’s a message that congressional Democrats need to hear.
During the hearing, Panetta urged Congress to consider cuts to mandatory federal spending programs and increases in revenues in order to meet the deficit reduction plan.
Rising deficits and deep debt have forced the federal government to slash spending — even at the Pentagon, whose budget has nearly doubled to some $700 billion in the 10 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The debt accord reached this past summer between Obama and congressional Republicans calls for a $350 billion cut in projected defense spending over 10 years. The Pentagon and House committee members say the actual number is more than $450 billion. The difference depends on the budget baseline that is used.
Panetta said the military has been stressed by a decade of fighting, squeezed by rising personnel costs, and is in need of modernization. In the last decade the military has focused heavily on fighting insurgencies and terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than on the skills and equipment needed to fight modern armies, navies and air forces.
Meanwhile, international security issues have grown more complex, Panetta said, noting the United States must be prepared to continue dealing with violent extremists as well as the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, the prospects of cyber attackers who may target American infrastructure, and other threats.
Panetta also repeated the warning he issued earlier this week — saying that some lawmakers’ favored defense programs could be on the chopping block.
Recalling his time as a member of the U.S. House, Panetta noted that a military base in his district was cut in 1994.
“I lost Fort Ord. ... That represented 25 percent of my local economy. So I know what it means to go through this process,” he said. “We have to do this right, and we can do it right.”
If the special bipartisan deficit-reduction supercommittee fails to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts from all federal spending by Thanksgiving, defense could face additional reductions. If the panel fails to come up with a proposal, or Congress rejects its plan, automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion kick in, with half of that to come from defense.
Panetta said the Pentagon is taking a comprehensive look at its spending, from overhead costs to the size of the force as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, from modernizing weapons to personnel.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House panel, said in a recent interview that it would be wise for the Pentagon to provide details on its strategic review as Congress considers spending cuts.
“I urge them to get it out sooner,” Smith said. “We’re already deep into” the next budget.
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Associated Press writers Donna Cassata and Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.