Posted on 08/09/2010 8:33:18 PM PDT by freespirited
Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Department budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramatically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia.
Most of the immediate reaction revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's proposal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region.
But a proposal to slash the Pentagon's budget for military contractors over the next three years could also be as significant to the economy of the Washington region.
"Virginia is more vulnerable to this kind of policy shift than any other state," said Stephen Fuller, director of the Center of Regional Analysis at George Mason University. "Defense spending was our strength during the downturn. It kept unemployment lower here than in most other states. It kept the economy from crashing as far as other states'. It's also our Achilles' heel."
Virginia received $35 billion in defense contracts, supporting more than 530,000 contracting and associated jobs in fiscal 2008, Fuller said. About 70 percent of those dollars flowed to Northern Virginia.
He said three years of 10 percent cuts to military contracting, as announced by Gates, could swallow up as much as half of the economic growth projected for Northern Virginia in coming years. ...
In Norfolk, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) hastily called a news conference with two congressional Democrats, two congressional Republicans and the Democratic mayors of Norfolk and Suffolk, designed to show bipartisan opposition to the proposed closure of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, one of the Pentagon's 10 combat installations.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
McDonnell and Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) accused the Obama administration of looking at the defense budget for cuts instead of at other parts of the federal government. The administration is "selling off our military at auction to pay for its social programs," Forbes said.
Virginia ping
Just taking a page from the Clinton handbook. Gut the military to bankroll your “social justice” and political favors.
The little thug in the White House thinks Virginia needs to show some more respect.
Of course Virgina has to be punished for going against Obamacare.
Well, Northern Va. needs a little cleaning out anyway. How about yanking some of those night-crawler lobbists out of there too?
Exactly. Ken Cuccinelli for President.
Gov. Robert F. McDonnell to Obama: Why stop there Bamster? Why don’t you close all Federal Offices in Virginia. A Southern Man Don’t Need Them Around Anyhow.
Obama will announce that part of his job creation program will have the military command centers outsourced to India.
Ding, ding! We have a winner!
Atleast VA reps will start screaming. When BRAC announced closing of Ft Monmouth NJ, none of her reps made a peep in 2005. Reason, the real estate developers lobbied for the silence as they salivated on the land the fort would yield in terms of MacMansions while the mayors drooled over the huge prop taxes they could collect. But by 2007 the real estate market tanked and the politicians then started to panic after the real estate developers changed their minds on developing the fort lands. The scheme backfired for the NJ polis, because the state will lose 5300 jobs plus 15000 supporting contractors and millions in local business as it officially will close in 2011. NJ will end up with a fenced in abandoned fort with no real estate development and the mayors are stuck securing it against squatters and trespassers to avoid any liabilities if someone got hurt on the lands.
See what I told you?
Havent heard any similar predictions for Maryland.
Politcal payback on a grand scale from one petty community activist in chief.
I don’t think we have ever had such a vengeful, tiny-minded thug running the country.
The AnnointedIdiot’s play on retribution for VA’s staunch stance against ObamaCare, Immigration, etc.
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