Panetta Starts Singing Contractors’ Tune After Closed-Door Meeting — Robert Greenwald and Derrick Crowe

When the cost-cutting begins in earnest, it's about whose ox is going to be gored and who have the most clout to protect their own oxen.

Well, that didn’t take very long.

Two days ago, while representatives of war profiteers were on the Hill trying to push elected officials to protect their profit margins from the deficit committee, heads of the war industry met in a closed-door meeting with Defense Secretary Panetta. The next day, the war contractors held a press conference to try to spin away the fact that military spending costs jobs compared to other ways of spending the money. And today, Panetta and his subordinates came out swinging with the same bogus spin on “jobs.” Panetta says that cuts to the Pentagon budget that would be triggered if the deficit committee doesn’t produce a plan that passes Congress could cause the jobless rate to jump 1 percent.

Why, it’s almost like they planned the whole thing.

Read it all at AlterNet, Panetta Starts Singing Contractors’ Tune After Closed-Door Meeting