Lawmaker Goes on the Road to Defend Defense

With the House of Representatives set to vote this month on a bill to reverse the trillion-dollar “sequestration” cuts to the military, Congressman Randy Forbes (R-Virginia) will be launching his “Defending Our Defenders” listening tour in Chesapeake, Virginia, on May 14, 2012 at 6:30 p.m.  Forbes, chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, started the listening tour to help make the case to the American public that sequestration will have severe consequences for national security and state economies, such as:

PINK SLIPPING 13% OF OUR WARFIGHTERS.  Roughly 200,000 active duty service members will have to leave service. This would be the equivalent of eliminating the entire Marine Corps.

“BRAC”-ing MILITARY RETIREMENT.  Payment of full retired pay until age 57 or 60 could be delayed and benefits payable for 20+ years of service could be significantly reduced.

DEVASTATING STATE ECONOMIES.  Under defense cuts, 122,800 jobs will be lost in Virginia and the Commonwealth will lose $10.5 billion in Gross State Product.

RSVP here.  For more, check out also Forbes’s “Defense Cuts:  A Very High Risk,” a vivid and readable 10-page primer on the dangers of sequestration.