Dear Friends,
As the representative of California’s 25th District, my top priority is keeping jobs in our community and getting people back to work. As Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, I take my job of protecting our service men, women and their families very seriously. We are at a critical moment in time, where both of my top priorities share a common threat: President Obama’s continued pursuit of defense cuts.
Last week, the President sent us his budget for 2013. This budget included $45 billion less for the Department of Defense than his request from last year. This continued slashing is on top of the already $487 billion in automatic cuts included in the Budget Control Act. It also threatens to increase healthcare fees (TRICARE) for our men and women in uniform, military families and veterans (The White House).
The defense of our country accounts for 20% of our federal budget, however 50% of our overall spending cuts are now being forced on the backs of our service men and women. (Budget Control Act)
What the President is proposing is catastrophic. The President is seeking to hollow out the greatest world power, leaving our military with fewer and fewer resources when we face increasingly hostile threats from across the globe. At a time when we are seeing violence and hostility in North Korea, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and other major hot spots, the President is seeking to shrink our military to some of the smallest levels we have seen since World War II.
These devastating cuts don’t just threaten our military. President Obama and advocates of these continued defense cuts fail to grasp the danger that these cuts pose to not only the security of our nation, but our economy. Not only does this drastically impact our armed service members, but it threatens thousands of jobs right here in our district.
This really impacts us in California, because we have one of the largest defense and aerospace sectors in the country. It is right here in our district where companies are creating the tools needed for our troops to have a definitive advantage in our national security interests. If these mandated automatic spending cuts are to take place, it is estimated that here in California alone we are set to lose 126,000 private sector jobs, 20,000 active duty military jobs and over 15,000 civilian DOD jobs. We are set to see an $11 billion decrease in our state’s GDP and our small businesses would lose more than $400 million in revenue. (http://www.aia-aerospace.org/)
I will not accept this continuous hit on our armed forces and American jobs. That is why I have introduced H.R. 3662, The Down Payment to Protect National Security Act, which would prevent a further round of cuts, beyond the $487 billion already announced by the President, from hitting our military and our communities.
Drastic cuts will hurt many communities in our district, like at Plant 42, Edwards Air Force Base, and China Lake, which account for over $1.4 billion in defense contracts in the Antelope Valley. Service chiefs and secretaries have testified before my committee that if these cuts are to take place, all of those contracts could be cut across the board by 8-12%. These institutions alone employ 25,000 people in the Antelope Valley and have payrolls of almost $1.5 billion, not to mention the many other related businesses that employ thousands of people in our community. As they deal with the uncertainty, they can’t plan for the future and many are already freezing hiring or planning layoffs. (http://www.aia-aerospace.org/)
As Chairman, I will fight against the drastic threats to our national defense proposed by the President. I will fight against the dangerous hollowing out of America’s Armed Forces. I will fight to keep our jobs here in California’s 25th district.
Recently, I appeared on several news shows to spread the word about this threat and its impact on our national security and jobs:
