New
Hampshire’s junior US Senator has been in the news lately, full of outrage at
the new budget deal being struck. Sadly for us all, she’s not outraged about it
for the right reasons. Senator Ayotte is all puffed up about cuts to military
pensions. The NH mainstream media, in their role as GOP stenographers,
trumpeted the outrage with no critical analysis and little fact. They howled
their horror that Senator Shaheen would vote for this! OMG!!
The
abhorrent “bipartisan” budget deal trims military pensions by about $6 billion
over a 10-year period. It’s a reduction in cost of living increases for
retirees that applies only while they’re still of working age. These are frequently
retirees on their second careers – many working for defense contractors. This
isn’t taking food out of the mouths of the poor grunts stuck in Afghanistan.
Like many things, it sounds bad, until you know the details.
Our Kelly counts on an uncritical media, and she is rewarded for her devotion
most of the time. The GOP media panderers have failed to point out that she
hasn’t voiced any objection at all to cutting off benefits for the long term
unemployed – many of whom are also veterans.
Ayotte,
in her explanation of why she wasn’t voting for this budget wagged a finger and
said that surely we could find $6 billion elsewhere. She’s absolutely correct
about that. One aspect of the budget she agreed with is increasing defense
spending by about $22 billion. Take that increase away, and there’s no reason
to commit austerity against any veteran. The Pentagon doesn’t need an increase.
Their budget should be shrinking, and Ayotte should be fighting against
Pentagon waste. The F-35 fighter plane that doesn’t fly is still being lavishly
funded with our tax dollars. The M1A1 Abrams tanks are still rolling off the
assembly line and going straight to storage, because the Army doesn’t want
them. The C-27J Spartan cargo planes are still being built, and going right to
boneyards. The Air Force doesn’t want them. There have been 16 built, and five
more scheduled to be produced in 2014, at an estimated waste of $432 million.
Ayotte
an only pay lip service to Pentagon waste, because actually looking into it
won’t make Senator Ayotte popular with her supporters or her financial backers.
Ayotte’s #1 donor industry is the securities and investment sector. Goldman
Sachs is her fifth largest donor. Many of the same investment companies that
back Senator Ayotte also fund defense contractors. Goldman Sachs touts their
socially responsible investment practices, while loaning money to nuclear
weapons manufacturers. Fidelity, another Ayotte funder also is very generous in
loaning to big defense contractors. A closer look also reveals that BAE
Systems, Honeywell International, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are also Ayotte
donors. They all have the distinction of being the recipients of the largesse
of the big banksters like Goldman Sachs and Fidelity. It’s a nasty little
circle, and to keep all of them filling her campaign coffers, Ayotte has to
continue to increase the defense budget. A cynic might also add that she has to
continue to increase the number of veterans as well.
Senator
Ayotte would much rather take food away from low income children, which is
rather short sighted, given that some of them will grow up to be the kind of
cannon fodder required to fight the endless wars that she and her ilk would
like to inflict upon us.
The
uncritical, GOP toadies of NH media continue to fail us, by not even bothering
to look at the reasons behind Ayotte’s vote.
They’ve
failed us a lot lately. The wheels are coming off the clown car known as the
NHGOP, and that, too is going unreported. The freedumb/libertea faction is at
war with the more traditional members of the party. The traditional Republicans
are aware that they don’t have any kind of a bench, and that the people signed
up to run against Senator Shaheen are silly candidates. The campaign of Jim
Rubens was over the same day he announced his candidacy. The campaign of former
Senator Bob Smith is an embarrassment to the party. They’re working to recruit
and squeeze as much out of former Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts as they
can. He’s got name recognition and he’s got money. That interests them. That he
was only able to finish out a term before getting kicked to the curb doesn’t
seem to be an issue. He was elected in current century and doesn’t have a bad
toupee, which makes him a star already.
The
freedumb and libertea crowd hates him, because he’s actually in favor of
putting some restrictions on gun ownership. Brown was scheduled to be appearing
at a fundraiser, even as the NH media debated whether or not he’d run for
Senate, if he was moving to NH, and if they could hang his picture in their
lockers. This led to State Rep. JR Hoell of Dunbarton talking about how Brown
was unacceptable, and it might be time for armed insurrection, just like “it
happened in the Revolutionary War.” Even the worst students are aware that the
Revolutionary War was not fought over a political candidate that a faction of
the Republican Party objected to. This is the equivalent of a toddler having a
tantrum because he is told he can’t have candy for dinner. The NH media did not
report this story. It was mentioned by out of state news groups, and even
reported internationally, but the only NH media outlet that reported Hoell’s
rather treasonous threats was the online Patch news group.
Hoell
has since gone on to bellow that Scott Brown has BROKEN HIS OATH to uphold the
Constitution at least 3 times. In Hoell speak, that means that Brown discussed
banning some semi-automatic rifles. Try as I might, I can’t find any mention of
semi-automatic rifles in the 2nd Amendment. In fact, I can’t find
the right to own as many guns as one wants in that rather brief amendment.
Brown, at least, was a part of a well-regulated militia, which is more than we
can say for Rep. Hoell.
It’s
generous of the NH media to gloss over Ayotte’s vote, or give Hoell the gift of
not reporting on his lunatic pronouncements. It’s also deeply unfair to voters
who deserve to be well informed. A simple explanation of the $6 billion in cuts
to military pensions should have been included in the news stories. And
everyone who lives in NH should be aware that there is a dangerous faction of
the NH GOP that threaten “revolution” every time they don’t get their way.
© sbruce 2013 published as biweekly column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.
