Will shovel-ready" or the Eagle has landed" goals stop Double-Dip Recession?
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. There was a time when the U.S. Space Program was a symbol of American achievement a source of
pride & inspiration to generations. Those days are gone. Additional U.S. defense spending cuts
due to take effect in January 2013 would wreak havoc on the U.S. Aerospace & Defense Industries possibly triggering a
double-dip recession in the United States.
At question is whether the United States continues down the shovel-ready" path or can somehow turn its economy toward the Eagle has landed" type goals for future? Doubling the $487 billion in defense spending cuts already planned for the next decade would result in serious consequences for the industry including in Texas industry experts aregue.
The Pentagons fiscal 2013 spending plan calls for a base defense budget of $525.4 billion about $5.1 billion less than that approved for 2012. It would cut more than 100000 troops over five years and slow or cut many weapons purchases.
The budget does not include an additional $500 billion in cuts over 10 years that will be required beginning in January 2013 unless Congress takes action before the end of the year to avert them. Those cuts are required because lawmakers failed to reach a deal by the end of 2011 on an extra $1.2 trillion in federal spending reductions.
Earlier this year during an extended White House Briefing with the President more than 100 chief executives from some of the nations largest employers urged the Obama Administration and Congress to
end political gridlock and work together with industry to accelerate economic growth through measures such as corporate tax reform.
We cannot be successful if government and business remain divided Boeing Co CEO Jim McNerney told a news conference in Washington D.C. He was flanked by dozens of chief executives participating in meetings hosted by
The Business Roundtable.
The group whose member companies generate more than $6 trillion of annual revenue and employ 14 million people released a 50-page plan that it said would revitalize the U.S. economy and encourage business to create more jobs. The report called on Washington to balance the federal deficit within five years adopt smarter and less complex regulatory policies and slash the combined corporate tax rate to 25 from 39.2.
According to Marion Blakey who heads the Aerospace Industries Association trade group some 2.2 of U.S. gross domestic product and more than 3.5 million jobs will be directly affected should the January 2012 Fiscal Cliff occur.
She urged Congress to act quickly to reverse the mandatory across-the-board budget cuts or sequestration.
These blind budget cuts could dismantle a crown jewel of our economy pushing us into a double-dip recession and stripping America of its global superpower status Blakey said.
AIA released a new report earlier this year prepared by Deloitte that Blakey said mapped out the importance of the industry to the U.S. economy as well as its contribution to technological growth
through innovations such as the Internet and nanotechnology.
The report said the industry was the largest net exporting industry in the United States contributed an estimated $37.8 billion in taxes to state local and federal coffers and that big cuts in Pentagon spending could harm company-funded research and development.
A separate study concluded further budget cuts could eliminate more than 1 million direct and indirect industry jobs .
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has repeatedly warned that additional cuts beyond the $487 billion already required under an August deal between the White House and Congress could damage the countrys security.
Not a decade ago the United States claimed the title of the worlds premier space-faring nation. The space-shuttle fleet was the primary means of sending man into orbit. There even were periodic discussions about changing the name of the U.S. Air Force to the Aerospace Force.
That ended last July when the space shuttle Atlantis completed its last mission. Now if Americans want to travel in space they go up as passengers with the rest of the cargo and its an air arm of Irans
Revolutionary Guard that calls itself an aerospace force.
President Obama spent as much in a single year on his 2009 Stimulus Program (in todays dollars) as the entire NASA Budget from 1958 to the present. That includes the Mercury and Gemini missions project Apollo and the moon landings the space shuttles and space stations the Hubble telescope and everything else NASA has done.
The AIAs Blakey says across-the-board sequestration threatened funding for NASA space programs and an effort to revamp the U.S. air traffic system that dates back to the 1960s. In his 2011 budget President Obama canceled NASAs Constellation project the package of launch and landing vehicles that were to replace the aging shuttle fleet to carry Americans into space.
The White House still paid lip service to manned space exploration and played up plans to land Americans on Mars sometime around 2030. I expect to be around to see it" Mr. Obama declared two years ago before zeroing out all planned Mars programs in his latest budget.
Meanwhile China is actively planning its own visit to the red planet.
The Business Roundtable executives warned earlier in the year that neither Congress nor Obama could afford to wait until after the presidential election to address tax reform.
The report also called for trade policies that strengthened U.S. competitiveness abroad adoption of a new national energy strategy improved cyber security and immigration reform.
In addition the United States needed to focus on ensuring education affordable health care and stable
retirement benefits for American workers said Andrew Liveris CEO of Dow Chemical Co.
We cant afford continued inaction from Washington Liveris told the news conference.
Would Americans trade the Eagle has landed" for a shovel-ready" future? NASAs most recent achievement has been growing algae in sewage for biofuel. The agency has become a pale parody of its former self.
