He Might Be My Brother, But He’s Getting’ Pretty Damn Heavy

It’s no secret that the Blue States carry the Red States—they pay more per capita in federal taxes and get less back—and now they’re being rewarded for their trouble by collectively losing out on the Pentagon’s plan for US military base closures and associated job transfers, to the Red States’ gain. The Pentagon claims that it’s not playing politics with the base closings, but Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is calling bullshit:

In a carefully worded statement, [Lautenberg] questioned why states that supported President Bush's reelection (red states) had a net job gain of 11,000, while states that opposed Bush (blue states) lost nearly 25,000 positions.

"My hope was that [Base Realignment and Closure] decisions were completely removed from politics but the total numbers do raise some questions," Lautenberg said.

In total, Red States gain a net total of 11,852 personnel/jobs. The Blue States lose a net total of 24,289 personnel/jobs.


What makes this even more disgusting is that the Blue States also provide more of the soldiers to fight in the war that is overwhelming supported in greater numbers by Red State voters, as one can see from this map pinpointing the homes of soldiers killed in action (as of February; hat tip Angry Bear):


You’ll note there seem to be a whole lot of pinpoints along those ever-blue coasts (and Chicago). It certainly seems like the Pentagon ought to do better than this pitiful explanation offered by spokesman Glenn Flood:

"It's based on the law that Congress passed given us the authority. The internal deliberations of the Pentagon are not based on any outside influences."

Of course not. Because we all know there’s never been any undue pressure put on formerly independent parts of the government by this administration before.