Military stimulus spending gives more bang for trhe buck

Fox News:

A series of short videos released on YouTube recently showed the U.S. Army's vision of the military to come with infantrymen maneuvering robots, electronics and guided missiles that moved at lightning speed with James Bond coolness.

Called the Future Combat System, the short videos show the many moving parts of the modern military using state-of-the-art equipment to fight a common foe. But despite the cheers at the end of each presentation, the FCS program may not have a happy ending.

While the stimulus bill President Obama signed into law on Tuesday includes $10 billion to upgrade military barracks, hospitals, clinics and child-care centers, it doesn't add a single dollar for weapons development. And some observers think that's a mistake.

A stimulus in defense spending, they say, would be a victory not only for American servicemen and women -- but for the nation's economy, as well.

The Lockheed Corporation, linking defense spending to immediate economic stimulus, says 95,000 Americans' jobs across the country depend on the Defense Department buying more of its F-22 Raptors.

Click here for photos of weapons of the future.

"This is shovel-ready," said Larry Lawson, executive vice president and general manager of the F/A-22 Raptor program. "Our point is, this preserves jobs, and it is immediate. You don't have to develop anything."

But a new administration means new priorities, and the Defense Department is now reviewing future purchases.

The F-22 has Mach speed capabilities, but speed comes at a price. Each F-22 costs $350 million -- a sum that could make the fighter jet a target for budget-cutters.

"It does not make sense to cut defense procurement and eliminate high-paying, middle-class union jobs, in order to fund other government programs to create jobs. That's just plain stupid," said James Carafano, military affairs expert for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"We really haven't significantly increased the core defense budget," Carafano added. "Most additional money has gone for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, the military still has not fully recovered from the 'procurement holiday' of the Clinton years... and we've used up a lot of equipment since then."

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There is much more.

This would be a true investment in the future of the country as opposed to the sink hole investments in the "stimulus" and the new expenditures for the benefit of those who caused the financial crisis to begin with by buying homes they could not afford. It is hard to see how people who are so far underwater on their homes that they are about to have them foreclosed can be bailed out for around $8,000 each. that would probably barely cover the back payments much less the decreased value which their's and other defeaults have caused.

As World War II and the Reagan years show, military spending stimulates the economy and creates growth as well as jobs.