I find this latest editorial by Rep. Howard McKeon, “The Real 1%,” to be absolutely disgusting and reprehensible. Completely lacking in hard facts or statistics, this mean little hate speech cynically panders to what he apparently believes are the basest emotions and prejudices of his supporters in our District. Although I am not one of his supporters, I don’t agree with him that any of us, supporter or not, are that stupid, naive and easily manipulated.

He paints in broad sweeping stokes about the stark contrasts between what he calls “these two different youth movements,” as though both the Occupy Movement and the United States Defense structure were comprised entirely of young people. After setting up these two “straw men” he proceeds to disparage the motives and intentions of each and every protestor while romantically glorifying the motives and intentions of anyone who has committed to military service.

He supports this ridiculous contention with a series of comparisons; depicting the protestors as spoiled brats, who after graduating from private universities with their elitist “expensive degrees in academic fields” are now whining about their student loan debt and poor job prospects using $300 smart phones. He contrasts this with our nation’s military service men and women, selflessly placing their lives on the line “in the name of our flag and our freedom.”

He concocts this cynical calculation to whitewash an entire generation of our own sons and daughters; grossly oversimplifying and misrepresenting what is, in reality, an extremely broad and complex range of personal motivations and economic circumstances that dictate the direction of each of our lives.

Then he uses this despicable charade as his continued justification for pouring vast amounts of our nation’s blood and treasury into the most enormous war machine the world has ever known. He laments the fact that Congress’s own “Super Committee,” having failed to raise taxes on the top 1% or enact draconian cuts to vital social programs, is now compelled to turn its attention to the massively inflated defense budget. What Mr. McKeon refuses to acknowledge is the unalterable fact that military spending has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, is higher than at any point since World War II, and the cuts he and Mr. Panetta claim will result in a “hollowed-out military” will actually just bring DOD back to 2007 spending levels.

Last month, Buck defended the war machine’s bloated budget and broke into tears during a hearing about soldiers in Afghanistan. Almost on the same day, a Stimson Center study demonstrated how the U.S. military had used money, pegged for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, on $1 trillion for tanks, ships and jets since Sept. 11, 2001.

Twenty-two percent of that $1 trillion came from “supplemental” war spending bills. In other words, $232.8 billion of taxpayer money that would’ve provided our young fighting men and women with better body armor, for example, was spent on Abrams tanks and jet fighters, both projects enrich war contractors while doing nothing to bolster the safety of our troops or our nation’s safety at home.

It’s should come as no surprise then that Lockheed Martin’s biggest political benefactor is Rep. Howard McKeon, who made this all possible. He is looking out for the safety and well being of his real 1% alright, they are not our young men and women however, but his fabulously wealthy defense contractor CEO sponsors.

If Mr. McKeon were truly interested in the safety of our fighting forces as well as the long-term prospects for the nation they will some day be returning home to he would do well to dispense with all of this divisive nonsense and start doing his job as the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Cut the defense budget where the real bloat is. End massively expensive weapons systems that don’t work and stop these now decade long wars we should never have been fighting to begin with.

Doing this would save over $300 billion a year and do more to provide for the long-term safety of our young men and women in uniform than hundreds more F-35 jet fighters and Abrams tanks ever could.

Jeff Courtney
Proud and Hopeful Citizen of the 25th District