Obama looks to kill a million defense jobs, 91,000 in Texas

Houston Chronicle:
The alarm is sounded. More than 1 million defense-related jobs — including 91,000 in Texas — could be lost if Congress fails to act on budget deals to forestall across-the-board cuts, Obama administration officials and lawmakers have warned.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta cautioned lawmakers that national security would be threatened if Congress fails to reach agreement on spending cuts to avoid sequestration: deep cuts agreed to in last year's deficit reduction deal.
As the cuts loom, Democratic and Republican leaders have signaled that they will likely avoid making painful budget decisions until after the November election.
“It's like watching a train wreck,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Congress last August agreed to a deficit-reduction deal that included $492 billion in cuts for thePentagon over a 10-year period.
Democrats and Republicans also agreed to let a “super committee” find additional savings. But the bipartisan panel failed, and without additional congressional action, sequestration will be triggered Jan. 2.
That would mean an additional $500 billion in Pentagon reductions.
The automatic cuts would mean the elimination of more than 1 million full-time defense-related jobs, according to a study by Stephen Fuller at George Mason University in Virginia.
The study found that while the automatic cuts would affect defense spending in all 50 states, 10 states would account for 58.5 percent of job and income losses.
Texas is listed third for potential job losses, 91,000, and for lost income, $5.4 billion. It trails California, with 126,000 jobs and $7.4 billion in lost income, and Virginia, with 123,000 jobs lost and $7.3 billion lost.
... 
Obama would rather gut defense than take a responsible course toward deficit reduction and focus on the true drivers of the deficit, Medicare and Social Security.  He wants to raise job killing taxes on people who are already paying more than their fair share.  He is easily the most irresponsible President in history.

The NY Times is also demanding an accounting of the impact of the Obama cuts.

Editorial: Lift the Veil on the Spending Cuts

The Senate is rightly demanding a full accounting of the damage from next year’s brutal sequester.
Obama is holding national security hostage to his obsession on raising taxes rather than addressing the real problems.

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