BRAC states are both Red and Blue

Since 06-10-05

From: Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 12:14 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: BRAC states are both Red and Blue

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050608-044002-2437r.htm

 

BRAC states are both Red and Blue


By Pamela Hess
UPI Pentagon Correspondent
Washington, DC, Jun. 8 (UPI) --

Senators Susan Collins and Joseph Lieberman have issued a subpoena to the Defense Department to force it to turn over documents related to the base closure and realignment decisions announced last month. document. write(''); The move by Collins, R-Maine, and Lieberman, Conn. is the latest tactic to delay or influence the base closing process now underway.

Last month, South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune introduced a bill to postpone the base closings altogether. Thune called it a "grave error" to move ahead with base closings while significant numbers of troops are deployed overseas and while the Pentagon is in the midst of a quadrennial review of its missions, force structure and weapons.

What's behind these moves is an attempt to protect local economies that would be ravaged by base closures and significant realignments. Collins, Thune and Lieberman represent three of the five states hardest hit by base closings. Those three states, together with 30 others and the District of Columbia would lose a combined 64,107 jobs if the Pentagon's requested cuts are approved.In a move to thwart the closures, the laswmakers are now trying to find national security reasons to keep their bases open.

The Pentagon has made it clear, as has the independent BRAC Commission, that economic reasons are not enough to reverse the recommendations. The Pentagon wants to close 33 of 318 major military installations in the United States and realign 29 others. The Pentagon also recommended closing or realigning 775 smaller military locations for a total projected savings over 20 years of $49 billion.

One popular -- and conspiratorial -- theory making the rounds is that the closing decisions were based at least in part on politics: the blue state/red state divide. Red states, those who voted for Republican President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, overall did far better than blue states, those who voted for Democrat Sen. John Kerry.

Thirteen red states would see a net gain of 40,328 jobs if the Pentagon recommendations are accepted unchanged by the BRAC Commission. Only eight blue states would see increases of a total of 11,351 jobs, numbers derived from the Pentagon's state-by-state breakdown of closings on civilian and military jobs. Four of the five states that would gain the most jobs are the red states of Georgia, Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

Maryland, however, a blue state with a Republican governor, would gain the most jobs of any state -- 9,293.Three of the top five losers are blue states - Connecticut with 8,586, Maine and Washington, D.C. Alaska and South Dakota, both red states, complete that list.

The two categories almost exactly offset each other: the top four red states gain 22,409 jobs, with Maryland gaining 9,293, a total of 31,702 jobs. The top three blue state losers shed 22,020 jobs, and the top two red states lose 8,416, a total of 30,436 losses.

The numbers look compelling, but the breakdown is coincidental, said Chris Hellman, an analyst with the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation who is closely tracking BRAC."Enough of the red states got zapped and enough of the blue states didn't to undermine the theory,"  Hellman told UPI. When he looks at the geographic spread of the base closures, what he sees is a trend away from "northern tier" states, which had a Cold War orientation and purpose. "Blue states tend to be located in the Northeast, and the (Cold War) focal point was eastward, looking at Europe across the Atlantic," he said.

The northern tier states are Maine, with Brunswick Naval Air Station and Portsmouth Navy yard; South Dakota with Ellsworth Air Force Base - built as a strategic bomber base to launch an attack against the Soviet Union - and red state Alaska, with all four of its bases slated for closure or realignment. "The Alaska congressional delegation is as powerful as you'll find on Capitol Hill, and they got walloped,"  Hellman said.

He also pointed out that Massachusetts - consistently Democratic and Kerry's home state - was a net winner, adding 491 jobs. Massachusetts has Hanscom AFB, a hub of intelligence activity that would get an additional 1,104 jobs. The final indication Hellman sees that the decision to close the bases is based on national security considerations and Defense Secretaey Donald Rumsfeld's desire to transform the military into a more expeditionary and lighter force is the fact that so many Guard and Reserve bases are on the realignment lists.

"Guard and Reserve in the past were pretty much off the lists. Those facilities were always more politically sensitive," he said. If any bases would be protected or targeted on a political basis it would be those. They are dear to members of Congress.

The troops live in their state and are not transferred to new assignments the way active duty forces are, Hellman said. By his calculations, however, 75 percent of the 160 largest installations undergoing realignments are Guard and Reserve bases.
------------------------------------------------
Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)