Barack Obama Stands With Defense Contractors

During my days in Washington, DC we called them the Beltway Bandits. Apparently that information hasn't filtered down to today's generation of political leaders, for they are a band of brothers with the defense industry. The common goal, led by none other than Barack Obama, is to reverse the effects of sequestration and rebuild annual deficits to a trillion dollars. The headline reads, "Defense Industry Hatches Plot to Kill the Sequester." The industry and the check writer in chief are pursuing common goals, sharing tactics and suffering similar fates.

In assessing the difficulty of reversing the sequestration cuts, defense analysts say that much of the industry’s trouble is self-inflicted — because the apocalyptic predictions their leaders made about the sequester have not come to pass.

You don't say.  We highlighted the charade as it was launched earlier this year, covering Obama's seminal rant and describing the tactics, best known as the Washington Monument game. As per normal, the military has its own terminology, they call it the "gold watch" gambit.

But perhaps the biggest example of the Washington Monument maneuver is coming from the Defense Department, where it goes by another name. Over many decades of defense budget battles, the Pentagon has often used a tactic known as a "gold watch." It means to answer a budget cut proposal by selecting for elimination a program so important and valued -- a gold watch -- that Pentagon chiefs know political leaders will restore funding rather than go through with the cut.

"Already, the threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier that was supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf," Obama said at a White House appearance on Tuesday, in case anyone missed the news.So now, with sequestration approaching, thePentagon has announced that the possibility of budget cuts has forced the Navy to delay deployment of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman to the Persian Gulf. With tensions with Iran as high as they've ever been, that would leave the U.S. with just one carrier, instead of the preferred two, in that deeply troubled region.

Some military analysts were immediately suspicious. "A total gold watch," said one retired general officer who asked not to be named. Military commentator and retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters called the Navy's move "ostentatious," comparing it to "Donald Trump claiming he can't afford a cab."

You have no credibility. Keep it up boys. You are all for one and one for all -- Obama calls it a community and the Beltway Bandits call it readiness. No matter which word is used it's about throwing money at politically favored groups, something our country and our children who are picking up the bills can ill afford.