It's all about national security, isn't it? Or is it? isalive and well in Washington, D.C. And it is shocking, just shocking, to learnthat as the defense drawdown continues, not a single player at the defensetable has stopped placing bets, stopped trying to fix the outcome of the game,or tried another role of the dice to end-run the impact of the sequester.
The past few days have seen a lot of these political games. The Washington Post is only the latestmedia source to rediscover the ancient verity: cherchez l'argent. (That's "follow the money",cheap jordans free shipping; for those who do notconsume snails and garlic butter with gusto.) The Post said it all: "Defense cuts pose an economicquandary for liberals."
Anyone who has heard President Dwight Eisenhower's 1961 knowsthat there is a political nexus that links the Defense Department to itscontractors. But Ike conveniently left out the middle player who makes the gamepossible: Congress. Go ahead, add them back in, making an "iron triangle," as Icoined it more than 30 years ago, standing around the table in the back room.
But perhaps it's some shock that congressional liberals mightfind themselves in a little bind between supporting stimulus for economicrecovery and jobs, and seeking budget discipline for DOD -- or at least greaterdiscipline than it has had for the last 12 years. And that contradiction canbecome stressful when the jobs are in a member's home state or district.
See, for example, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who supportskeeping an unneeded M-1 tank production line open, with subcontracting jobs inMichigan, while he lowering the defense budget $100 billion below the level proposed by theadministration.
Indeed, the smell of pork is thick in congressional backrooms.While the Post leaned on theDemocrats, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) has also been for the M-1, as has Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, and their fellow Ohio senator,the Democrat Sherrod Brown. Seems the main production plant is in Lima,cheap jordan shoes, OH,making the stakes very local, indeed.
Next door in Pennsylvania, Democrat Robert Casey andRepublican are equally convinced that stopping work on the Bradley FightingVehicle would be a for American national security. Never mind that the Army sensiblyupgraded and modernized all the M-1s and Bradleys they need (and bought over15,000 MRAP vehicles and all the Stryker light vehicles they wanted, to boot) spendingall those additional dollars for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to do so,cheap jordan shoes, asmy colleague Russ Rumbaugh more than 18 months ago. Never mind that cuts are bringing the Army down by100,000 people over the next couple of years, making the equipment inventorymore than satisfactory. And never mind that the tanks and personnel carriers ithas are more than adequate today against any known or likely military threat.
Let's be clear: Congress is worried about jobs,cheap jordans free shipping, campaigncontributions, and reelection -- even when they cloak the argument in nationalsecurity verbiage. The defense budget is one of the biggest political games intown. When every contract has subcontractors peanut buttered across thecountry, the politics can be very persuasive, even when the national securityargument is not.
To be fair, it is not just the elected members of Congresswho play the game and sometimes feel the conflict between their policy goalsand local interests. Playing the politics of defense goes well beyond theCongress into the other corners of the triangle.
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