The impact of defense spending on job creation has become a contentious flashpoint in the debate over how to reduce the nation’s debt and still maintain a strong military. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and industry leaders have stood behind estimates that cuts to military spending will ratchet up unemployment/.../
Other analysts have argued that, rather than play the jobs card, a more prudent way to make defense budget decisions is to allocate investments based on what skills and technologies the nation needs for the future.
"The Pentagon must develop a long-term strategy that identifies what capabilities are critical to a healthy and adaptable defense industrial base," contend Todd Harrison and Barry Watts, senior fellows at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "The four military services, the office of the secretary of defense, Congress, industry and labor unions all have weapons programs they consider essential and untouchable,” Harrison and Watts assert in a recent article. “But accommodating every sacred cow is impossible in a constrained budget environment."