Obama vs Obama on the Stimulus

“We’ve talked to all of our employees,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work” to try and minimize the impact, find jobs in other programs for as many as possible and provide other assistance.

The cuts are part of 1,000 jobs Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems said this week it plans to eliminate at various locations because of changes in defense spending.


The defense budget released by President Barack Obama and Defense Sec...

Obama vs Obama on the Stimulus

“We’ve talked to all of our employees,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work” to try and minimize the impact, find jobs in other programs for as many as possible and provide other assistance.

The cuts are part of 1,000 jobs Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems said this week it plans to eliminate at various locations because of changes in defense spending.


The defense budget released by President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this year takes $1.2 billion from the Missile Defense Agency, which has a proposed 2010 budget of about $7.8 billion.


Boeing is not alone. Since the stimulus was enacted in April, several missile defense firms have been forced to swing the axe:


* Lockheed Martin — stop work order issued on the Multiple Kill Vehicle.

* Northrop Grumman — stop work order issued on the Kinetic Energy Interceptor.


It’s hard to say how many missile defense people have lost their jobs so far. Of course, missile defense is not the only area to suffer Pentagon cuts. However, of all the defense programs, it has borne the largest percetage budget cut — nearly 15%.

To borrow Obama’s favorite rhetorical tic — “let me be clear” — these highly skilled, highly paid jobs were eliminated not because of any temporary economic downturn (finance sector) or fickle consumer whims (autos).

Obama and his Democrat legislators pro-actively chose to have these people fired. He chose to throw these folks on to the street and right in the teeth of a rather brutal recession.

All while choosing to make the US less safe. Perfect.

To my now unemployed colleagues in the missile defense industry, I’d offer to help out in any way with similar postions at my own firm, but surprise: hiri