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Defense Firms Say Layoff Warnings Loom

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The Prof

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Defense firms say layoff warnings loom - Austin Wright - POLITICO.com

president punt is already in violation of congressional action he signed into law last month dictating the fourth-down president itemize exactly where these draconian cuts, which defense secty panetta says will "devastate" our military, will fall

labor's hilda solis mailed a letter on july 31 to defense contractors advising them NOT to send pink slips required by the WARN act 60 days before layoffs

the cuts go into effect jan 2

there are reportedly 100K defense industry jobs potentially at risk in virginia alone
​
 
The Prof said:
labor's hilda solis mailed a letter on july 31 to defense contractors advising them NOT to send pink slips required by the WARN act 60 days before layoffs
Click to expand...

True, and according to the law she has no authority to waive the notification requirement (which will be due just before the election). This should be interesting.
 


OK by me. Even bigger Military Offense/Defense budgets would be even better. When you talk about Corporate Welfare the $700 Billion budget for the Military should jump up and take a bow. It's time to start making jobs that mitigate Global Warming while promoting Renewable Energy and Boosting local economies. Of course, this cuts the Defense Contractors and Big Energy out of the Pork Pie. Do you suspect that is why they buy some of the best Congressmen that money can buy? Ya think?
 

All the more reason that the corps start maufacturing in this country again; right?
 

The defense contracters give us our money's wort
h. Solyndra? Eh, not so much.
 
this afternoon:


Defense firms confirm layoff warnings - Philip Ewing - POLITICO.com

there are 100's of 1000's of defense industry jobs in swing states virginia, florida and north carolina

hampton roads and norfolk in the commonwealth, very purple districts

jacksonville and the panhandle of florida, generally red

and the research triangle, raleigh-durham-chapel hill, among the tarheels, another very swingy area

even if they don't get a pink slip, know that defense industry workers know

professional scuttlebutt being how it is

worry
 
Thats interesting, many of these firms (Northrop Gruuman, General Dynamics, Boeing, etc) all have a heavy presence in just about every swing state. Wild card is, who will they blame?
 

Great, Obama is going to weaken our military. Let's hope the Chinese don't invade.
 
This was an inevitability. What happens when less people are employed? Less taxes are taken in. Somewhere, something had, or HAS, to give. Somewhere in our countries budget, SOMETHING has to go bye bye. Look at the teacher's union in Chi town. The recession is finally hitting the north east, like it's been hitting the south and south west.

It's gonna get ugly.
 

Government spending can't create jobs!

If we cut this government spending it cause massive job loss!

I'm sorry brother which is it? And correct me if I'm wrong but since when was it the government responsibility to keep people employed? Since when does the government have to continue spending on things it no longer thinks it needs because it doesn't want people to be out of a job, sounds like socialism to me man. And since when is the DoD responsibility to keep people employed building things it thinks it no longer needs?

Here's a story about General Dynamics who through lobbying and Congressmen of districts where their factories lie were able to extend an M1A1 Abrams tank contract the US Army and Chief of Staff said they had no use for and wanted to relocate the money to other projects.

The Army tank that could not be stopped | The Center for Public Integrity

Defense spending is the biggest "stimulus" no one talks about, so much of it is solely for the purpose of keeping people working for things the military doesn't need just so some Congressman doesn't have to suffer a closed factory in his district. What happened to free market capitalism, can the consumer(ie the government) decide not to purchase from a company if it doesn't want to anymore or is it morally compelled to keep those people employed against market forces?

Lockheed Martin leads expanded lobbying by U.S. defense industry - The Washington Post

Congress added $255 million to the Army’s $181.3 million request for upgrades of the Abrams tank built by General Dynamics. The funding was supported by Republican House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, where the tank is assembled.
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So the Army said we need 181 million to upgrade our tanks, Congress said "Hey here's 255 million, lets keep those factories open." The difference is pure waste and can be cut from the budget to save money, reduce the deficit, lower taxes, etc.

You know being a logistican, supply specialist, I do a lot of inventorying of Army equipment and I constantly run across things like "20 dollar hammers, 40 dollar wrenches, 900 dollar jacks, etc" and I bet your ass its because some Congressman has a hammer factory, a wrench factory, jack factory, etc that he wants to boost up with government dollars. Makes me ****ing sick.
 
100% agree with the rest of your post, so I edited it out, hope you don't mind. I just wanted to address the bold...

A 20 dollar hammer is a very realistic, possibly even cheap, price, depending on the hammer. Mallet? Sledge? I doubt it's for a standard claw hammer. Wrenches, too. Even standard crescent wrenches....the larger ones are quite expensive. Same with that jack. Being friends with a diesel mechanic (that is, a mechanic who works on diesel engines...not a muscular mechanic), I know what this guy pays for some of his tools...and it's pretty crazy. It's because, when you work on a tractor engine, you can't have shoddy craftsmanship in the tools you use, because most of the applications are very high torque, and require, at the very least, good, high quality drop forged steal. Which means, you buy made in america.
 

Well these businesses should adapt their business models to one in which they are more self-sufficient and can survive free-market competition without government support as the economic philosophy of capitalism demands.
 

When I say that I mean items like these:

the 20 dollar hammer is one of these


60 dollar wrench:


900 dollar jack (with handle which isn't in the picture)
 
Wiseone said:
When I say that I mean items like these:

the 20 dollar hammer is one of these
View attachment 67134129

60 dollar wrench:


900 dollar jack (with handle which isn't in the picture)
View attachment 67134130
Click to expand...

Too bad thats a fallacy. If you want to see what the Military pays for a typical hammer go to : www.gsaadvantage.gov Search "hammer". For the most part, they're the same price as you'd pay at Home Depot, sometimes cheaper as you get them at wholesale prices.

When you hear "$50 dollars for a hammer," it likely means a specialized hammer. In fact, they could be as much as a couple hundred dollars depending on their application. That goes for just about every tool out there. Do you honestly think you can just pick up a typical torque wrench from Auto Zone to work on a state of the art fighter jet?

You pay much more for typical commercial airline tools.
 
Well these businesses should adapt their business models to one in which they are more self-sufficient
Click to expand...

LOL!

you mean like the volt?

GM losing up to $49,000 per Volt - chicagotribune.com

or?

Fremont-Based Solyndra Goes Bankrupt; 1,100 Workers Laid Off « CBS San Francisco

Beacon Power bankrupt; had U.S. backing like Solyndra | Reuters

DOE grant recipient Ener1 goes bankrupt - Jan. 26, 2012

if president punt wants to send 100,000 pink slips to the workers of norfolk-hampton roads, more power to him

go for it

either way, he really should comply with the law he signed

Obama signs Sequestration Transparency Act - POLITICO.com

because if the punter refuses to itemize, lockheed martin, general dynamics, raytheon, et al, will
 
Fishstyx said:
Which is $4 cheaper than you'd pay.

Mallets Wooden Garland Manufacturing
Click to expand...

But much more expensive than a higher quality product.

Search Results for mallet at The Home Depot

Also I should note that all those items I'm talking about are part of whats called the BII(Basic Issue Items) on a piece of equipment. All equipment has them and list of the stuff I had on my trucks can be found in this technical manual

http://www.liberatedmanuals.com/TM-9-2320-364-10-HR.pdf

The problem is most of that stuff is worthless junk and its not practical to actually use it for anything, but its just weight that must be kept and tracked and purchased when its lost. Some things like the chains, chock blocks, ratchet straps, warning triangles, and the wooden mallet which was useful for banging things into place if it was off by a bit, but the rest is junk. I cannot tell you much time and energy was spent laying all these things out over 60 trucks, counting each item individually, constantly doing it to keep our property books up to date.
 

Carney Can't Answer Woodward Book Charge that Sequester Was White House Idea | cnsnews.com

yup, according to the watergate wonderboy, these draconian defense cuts, which secretary of defense panetta says would be "devastating" and which could cost 100K jobs in virginia alone, are all obama's

of course, the responsibility for this meat ax approach to defense jobs is just one of the takeaways from woodward's bombshell, the price of politics, out tuesday

the more significant revelations are:

1. the president was "voted off the island" by the congressional big 4, led by harry reid and his brave chief of staff david krone, in a white house meeting called by the president on july 24, 2011

the president was "asked to leave the meeting he called in his own house"

"that was it, congress was taking over"

2. the last minute call by obama for 400B more, when new revenues of 800B had already been agreed upon, was the cause of the collapse of the grand bargain

Woodward book chronicles Obama's fiscal policy battle with congressional Republicans - The Washington Post
 

It's already hit the south; twice, because of the drilling ban.
 
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