The Washington Post reports that, as a result of the automatic cuts imposed by the debt deal, the Pentagon is cutting – or, to use their overly dramatic term, “slashing” – about 8,700 jobs from the Defense Department:
The Army said Thursday it is moving forward with plans announced in July to cut about 8,700 positions, using a mix of early retirement offers, buyouts and attrition to trim the jobs by the end of the fiscal year in late September.
…The cuts will come in 37 states at 70 different locations across eight commands and agencies with nearly 90 percent of the cuts taking place within the Installation Management Command, Army Materiel Command and the Training and Doctrine Command. Most of the cuts are likely to occur in Virginia and Texas, where most of the DOD’s civilian workers are located.
I can hear economic ignoramuses from the left and right crying about the loss of “jobs” and “national security.” But, judging from a chart from the Economist in September, I think they can spare plenty more.
Yes, the Defense Department employs more people than any other organization on the planet. Who knows, maybe some of those 8,700 can go and find jobs that add value to the economy, instead of the ones they had which sucked away at productive sectors of the economy and wasted expropriated wealth on the warfare state.
