(Air Force Times) Editorial: Cuts could hurt economy

[unhappycamper]

Cuts could hurt economy

The coming new year will not be rung in with all the traditional hope and optimism — 2009 has all the makings of a historically tough one. The worst economic crisis in decades is straining budgets worldwide.

The year will see a classic guns-or-butter debate as governments that have announced giant economic bailouts, grants and subsidies struggle with the staggering cost of their actions. Already, U.S. government borrowing to cover emergency economic moves totals more than $1.7 trillion, with hundreds of billions in additional spending to be announced over the coming months.

Clearly, defense spending will have to take its share of the pain.

But if the U.S. government overreacts, ill-reasoned defense spending cuts could threaten the military’s operational capabilities by shrinking supplies, eroding skills and curtailing research and development. Once lost, such assets are difficult and expensive to reclaim.

While Washington debates rescuing an uncompetitive domestic auto industry and the 3 million jobs it creates, directly and indirectly, few realize that the U.S. aerospace and defense industry directly employs 831,000, according to the Aerospace Industries Association, and supports more than 2 million additional related jobs in a world-leading industrial sector. Aerospace generates the largest trade surplus of any U.S. manufacturing sector, AIA says, totaling $61 billion in 2007.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/community/opinion/airforce_editorial_cuts_122908/%2e