Defence Contractors Insulated from Budget Cuts

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http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54102


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Despite U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates's announcement last week of a 78-billion-dollar reduction in Pentagon spending by 2016, analysts predict that defence contractors – the "industry" leg of the so-called "iron triangle" alluded to in Eisenhower's speech – will come away largely unscathed.

"If you were looking for an apt metaphor to describe what happened to makers of military hardware on Thursday, you might say they 'dodged the bullet,'" said Loren B. Thompson, chief operating officer of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.

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"The numbers that we're talking about are relatively small," Gates said at a press conference Thursday. "The focus here is on a reduction in the rate of growth, as opposed to absolute cuts."

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In his new book, 'Prophets of War' (Nation), Hartung exposes the myriad of connections – mostly fiscal, often human – between the U.S. government and its most favoured firm, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, which he claims consistently pushes for overpriced and unnecessary defence programmes.

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but of course, our Barons always gets theirs