Paul claims that he would've only cut a portion of this budget. Enough to help make a difference, but also enough to sustain our title of having the strongest defense in the world. It is important to have an excellent defense, but there are definitely areas of our defense that can be cut.
A main argument of those who claim it is not necessary to make cuts to the defense budget say it will only lead to unemployment. Dramatic cuts in defense spending under the Budget Control Act of 2011 will have a significant impact on U.S. jobs and economic growth. With the cuts made, the outlook for 2014 alone is 1,010,000 private sector jobs lost. The unemployment is due to a decrease in purchases for equipment, supplies, and services typically needed by the government. As a total, job losses will increase the unemployment rate by 0.7 percent, a drastic change for workers across the whole country. Certain U.S. defense-producing industries will be hit harder than others. The aerospace industry will lose 3.4 percent of its jobs, the ship and boat industry will lose 3.3 percent, and the search and navigation industry will lose 9.3 percent. According to an official from Williams-Pyro, Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, his industry is getting hit particularly hard. "We derive over 50 percent of our annual sales from the defense industry. Right now we are struggling to keep our employees working to provide the necessary equipment to the Defense Department for it to remain effective. Defense is a large part of the workforce here in Texas and these cuts will have a major impact on the entire metroplex area" ("A Significant Cut In The Defense Budget Would Have A Similar Effect On Our Budget"). Potentially deep cuts in defense expenditures will have a huge impact throughout the manufacturing economy, as well as workers in these areas. The cuts could affect large defense contractors, tens of thousands of small and medium-sized manufacturers in defense supply chains, and over 1 million workers throughout the United States.
