Battle Stations

The Aerospace Industries Association will fire another salvo tomorrow in the war against military budget cuts. AIA will hold an afternoon briefing at the National Press Club to unveil a new study that "predicts dramatic job losses and a devastating economic impact that far outstrips any value from the cuts to defense contemplated under the Budget Control Act," according to a press release AIA issued today.

The act, passed this summer, set up a congressional "supercommittee" and tasked it with finding $1.5 billion in federal budget cuts beyond what was called for in the legislation. If the 12-member supercommittee can not reach a consensus, a sequestration lever is pulled and the Defense Department could be subject to up to $600 billion in additional cuts.

Appearing along with AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey will be R. Thomas Buffenbarger, the international president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and Stephen Fuller, a professor at George Mason University who conducted the analysis.

Last month, AIA launched the "Second to None" campaign touting the economic benefits of the defense and aerospace industry.

Two years ago, two researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst released a similar study to the one AIA will release tomorrow. But that study showed the opposite of what AIA will trumpet: It concluded that $1 billion spent on clean energy, health care and education -- as well as tax cuts that produce increased levels of personal consumption -- "will create substantially more jobs within the U.S. economy than would the same $1 billion spent on the military."