Budget Talks Have Major Defense Contractors on Edge

Sunday 28 August 2011
by: Amanda Wilson, Inter Press Service | Report

Washington - When an expensive unmanned aircraft built by Lockheed Martin Corporation, a U.S. defence contractor, disappeared during a U.S. military test flight off the Pacific coast earlier this month, the debacle raised eyebrows.

The incident also raised criticism that the U.S. government is spending millions on hefty defence contracts to pay for technology that does not work.

The experimental craft was designed to travel at 20 times the speed of sound and be able to attack targets anywhere on earth within 60 minutes. Part of a defence department programme named "Prompt Global Strike" that has cost about 320 million dollars - this was only the aircraft’s second flight.

But Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defence contractor, held a press briefing here Wednesday to defend its technology and responded to speculation that a congressional super-committee, appointed in August to identify areas for federal budget cuts, might take a red pen to defence spending.
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Understand the Right's Attack on Social Security

Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: "You hear over and over that Social Security is 'in trouble' or that we 'can't afford it.' This is as far from true as can be, and the idea behind this is to convince people to just give up on defending the program and let the haters have their way. The people who hate Social Security the most are the ones who say they want to make these changes to 'save' it. Well, Bernie Sanders loves the program and has introduced a bill that actually will save it."
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Capitalism's New Era

(Photo: Kaba; Edited: JR / t r u t h o u t)

Sunday 28 August 2011

by: Shamus Cooke, Truthout | News Analysis

"Karl Marx got it right, at some point capitalism can destroy itself," said Mr. Roubini, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "We thought markets worked. They're not working."

The world economy is in shambles and about to get worse, according to even mainstream economists. How bad is anybody's guess. Some things, however, are certain: the recovery that politicians have been promising for years existed only in their heads. The reality of the situation is now apparent to millions of people across the globe, who, before, clung to the empty promises of economic recovery. This newfound consciousness will inevitably find expression in the political realm and, more importantly, the streets.

A key aspect of this sudden mass awareness is in response to high unemployment and the deeply unpopular measures that politicians are forcing upon working people, both byproducts of the Great Recession. Politicians are blaming "the markets" for demanding austerity measures, but "markets" are simply places where wealthy people invest their money. To guarantee a profitable return on their money these investors demand that labor laws be squashed and social programs be eliminated, all over the world.

Spain, for example, is one of many countries having austerity measures forced down their throats. Reuters reports:

"Analysts see the shaking up of the country's inflexible labor laws [laws that protect workers] and the easing of hiring and firing [so older, activist, or slower workers can be fired] as vital to restoring the country's competitiveness. The labor reforms are crucial. They will help to restore growth [profits] in the long term. Growth is the only way out of these adverse fiscal trends,' said Luigi Speranza, analyst at BNP Paribas." [May 27, 2010]

To summarize, creating new laws that enable Spanish corporations to work their workers harder will be better for profits.
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Sen. Heller Pretends GOP Doesn't Want to End Medicare in Weekly Address - Asks Dems to Quit Using 'Scare Tactics'

August 28, 2011 08:00 AM
By Heather



Once again, the Republicans prove they're living in upside down land with the remarks in their Weekly Address. This week it was Sen. John Ensign's replacement in Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller giving their talking points for the week.

After rattling off a list of their supposed remedies for "job creation" in the United States - deregulation, a balanced budget amendment, lowering taxes on corporations, attacking unions and card check -- Heller asks that the Congressional Democrats quit using "scare tactics" on senior citizens by daring to point out that Republicans would like to get rid of Medicare and Social Security. A charge Heller denies naturally, who claims instead they really want to "save" them for future generations.

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FOCUS: Prosser Says Contact With Judge's Neck a "Total Reflex"

Eric Kleefeld, TPM Muckraker
Intro: "Friday saw the release of the official documents in the investigation of the alleged physical altercation at the Wisconsin Supreme Court - in which liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused conservative Justice David Prosser of grabbing her neck in a chokehold during an argument. A special prosecutor announced Thursday that no charges would be filed."
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How Rick Perry Created His State's $27 Billion Budget Crisis

Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry has created a budget crisis in Texas. (photo: Jim Young/Reuters)

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By Lou Dubose, The Washington Spectator

27 August 11

He Was Warned

"As of this moment, this legislation is a staggering $23 billion short of the funds needed to pay for the promised property tax cuts over the next five years.... These are conservative estimates."
- Texas Comptroller Carole Strayhorn, warning Gov. Rick Perry about his 2006 tax reform proposal

N HIS STATE OF THE STATE SPEECH in February, Rick Perry described the $27 billion budget shortfall confronting the Texas Legislature.

Now, the mainstream media and big government interest groups are doing their best to convince us that we're facing a budget Armageddon," Perry said. "Texans don't believe it and they shouldn't because it's not true."

The $27 billion equaled 15 percent of the $182 billion biennial budget the Legislature had passed two years earlier. If not Armageddon, an apocalyptic loss of revenue in a low-tax state that provides bare-bones public services.

Perry's statement was even more remarkable because most of the budget shortfall was a consequence of a business-tax bill he pushed through the Legislature in a special session five years earlier.

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GOP's Debt Solution: Soak the Poor

Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News
Carl Gibson writes, "Despite billionaire Warren Buffett's pleas to reduce the deficit by shifting the tax burden to the super-rich, Republican members of Congress have officially come out in favor of raising taxes on the poor, while fiercely protecting trillions in tax handouts for billionaires, big oil and corporate jet owners. Right-wing politicians and corporate-media pundits have now set their sights on 'lucky duckies,' or the bottom half of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes."
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