Mary Young
Reading Eagle
If you haven’t already seen a television ad about military funding cuts, you probably will soon.
The Coalition for the Common Defense is hoping you’ll tell Congress you don’t want the cuts.
First, a waving flag and a few words about the Budget Control Act of 2011 appear.
A soldier is shooting. A man in a suit approaches and asks the soldier how he’s doing. The soldier asks what the man is doing there. They talk a bit, then the man takes the clip out of the soldier’s gun.
“Sir, may I have my ammunition, please?” the soldier says.
“Absolutely,” the man replies. “Next fiscal year. Carry on soldier.”
The coalition website states that the military already has taken a $487 billion hit and will face another $500 billion over the next 10 years because of sequestration, a fancy word to describe automatic, mandatory budget cuts.
The military, which is 20 percent of the federal budget, is taking 50 percent of the budget hit.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that’s like shooting ourselves in the head.
According to the coalition, if the cuts stand, the country would have its smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest Navy since 1915 and the smallest Air Force in history.
It also would mean the loss of 1.3 million jobs and $62.9 billion in lost revenue for defense contractors, the coalition predicts.
The unspoken implication is that the United States would be less prepared for terrorism or threats from unfriendly foreign countries.
The coalition describes itself as like-minded people and organizations that believe freedom will be threatened if the country doesn’t provide for the common defense, as the Founding Fathers wanted.
A tag at the ad’s end states that it was paid for by Citizens for Energy, Freedom and Security, another coalition of the like-minded. I ran out of time before I could figure out where it gets its money.
You can see the ad or find more information at www.forthecommondefense.org.
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