— Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Corp., Raytheon Co. and Boeing Co. — build missiles, aircraft, jet fighters and tanks while employing tens of thousands of workers.
Boeing was fourth on the list of donors to Senator Murray from 2007-2012, with its political action committee, individual employees and family members contributing $102,610.
Michigan is home to two committee members, Republican Reps. Dave Camp and Fred Upton, and General Dynamics work on the Abrams tank. The state is struggling with a 10.5 percent unemployment rate, which is above the national average.
Already facing the prospect of $350 billion in defense cuts over 10 years, the Pentagon could look to scale back some projects, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the stealthy aircraft that has been plagued by cost overruns and delays.
Lockheed Martin, in conjunction with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, is building 2,400 of the next generation fighter jet for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as working with eight foreign countries. But the cost of the program has jumped from $233 billion to $385 billion; some estimates suggest that it could top out at $1 trillion over 50 years.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110814/ap_on_go_co/us_debt_supercommittee_defense?duOkay, the argument is that when defense spending is cut, people manufacturing weapons and war machines become unemployed. Why can't these manufacturing jobs be turned into peace-time employment? Is war and war weaponary the only thing the US can build? Guess so, as long as this is how business is done:
http://articles.boston.com/2010-12-26/news/29319170_1_generals-defense-firms-private-sector?duIn some years, the move from general staff to industry is a virtual clean sweep. Thirty-four out of 39 three- and four-star generals and admirals who retired in 2007 are now working in defense roles — nearly 90 percent.
And in many cases there is nothing subtle about what the generals have to sell — Martin’s firm is called The Four Star Group, for example. The revolving-door culture of Capitol Hill — where former lawmakers and staffers commonly market their insider knowledge to lobbying firms — is now pervasive at the senior rungs of the military leadership.
Among the Globe findings:
■ Dozens of retired generals employed by defense firms maintain Pentagon advisory roles, giving them unparalleled levels of influence and access to inside information on Department of Defense procurement plans.
and this:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/4/obama-opens-revolving-door-for-defense-nominee/?duThe White House announcement of Mr. Carter’s nomination this week hailed his years at Harvard, but made no mention of the consulting work he did while employed as a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
While teaching at Harvard, he earned $238,235 from Jan. 1, 2008, through March 18, 2009, when he signed a financial disclosure form just prior to joining the Pentagon as undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Over the same period, Mr. Carter received $65,000 from the Mitre Corp., which manages federally funded research and development centers, where he was a trustee, and more than $100,000 from Global Technology Partners, a defense consulting firm founded by William J. Perry, who served as defense secretary from 1994 to 1997.
Mr. Carter reported earning $20,000 in consulting fees from Goldman Sachs, and he received $10,000 from Raytheon for what was described on Mr. Carter’s ethics form as “meeting fee and memoranda.”
Mr. Carter is one of more than 30 officials in various federal agencies and at the White House who have been given waivers from Mr. Obama’s ethics rules. In Mr. Carter’s case, the waiver was issued after his 2009 appointment to the Pentagon, and concerned consulting work he did for defense contractor Textron. According to the waiver, he “provided specific business advice” on a weapons system called the Sensor Fused Weapon. The last year of Defense funding for the weapon system was in fiscal 2007.
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