THE MESSY DETAILS

Yes the messy details are continuing to emerge about the "deal" that is being cut by Obama and the Republicans.  I'd suggest the corporate interests are quite happy to have this president in power at this time.  He does such a great job of appearing tough in presidential campaigns and then turning into melting butter come time for negotiations.

Yesterday I posted evidence of the magician's two-handed act to sell his base out on Social Security and social progress in general.  Today the word is that his cuts on the war machine are going to be slim pickins.

Below are some choice comments by Jack Rasmus from his article entitled Fiscal Cliff—The Well Orchestrated Dance. 

Forget about the $500 billion in defense cuts called for in the sequestration deal of August 2011. That’s no longer an issue, and never was. If readers had listened closely to Obama in the second presidential debate, when asked by the moderator what was his position on that issue, he briefly answered ‘that was Congress’ proposal, not mine’. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that even in the sequestration deal, only $24 billion in 2013 is scheduled in defense cuts. Look therefore for about half, or no more than $200 billion over ten years in military spending cuts. That will come from withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq and Army personnel downsizing. Military equipment expenditures will likely actually rise, however, after 2014 as the US military redeploys to the western pacific and Navy-Air Force spending takes precedence over Army expenditures. Defense equipment companies know the deal for them is already cut. They reportedly even have no ‘Plan B’, according to the Wall St. Journal, in the event that military spending is reduced per the sequestration agreement, which is now virtually out of the question. Unlike the reduction of the cuts in military spending by half in a Fiscal Cliff agreement, don’t expect the other $500 billion in the 2011 sequestered cuts social programs to be similarly reduced by half.