Burgess Owens: “I would like to say, it cannot be emphasized too much, that the gigantic Department of Defense budget can certainly be…”

“I would like to say, it cannot be emphasized too much, that the gigantic Department of Defense budget can certainly be cut in ways that do not immediately hurt workers. If you want to pursue a public policy designed to minimize hurting workers, it is possible to do that. Our overseas bases that are not employing American workers, are costing tremendous amounts of money, a little less than $100 billion, money being spent on overseas bases in NATO, et cetera, we could certainly begin to even downsize drastically there and not hurt jobs and bases in local communities where the economy is affected by the bases. There are ways to do that over a 10-year period which would minimize the pain and suffering. If you accept as policy that defense conversion should create jobs, you can certainly cut defense in a way which creates jobs at the same time, have a conversion where you use the money in ways that create jobs, and this has been all explained and was presented in the Congressional Black Caucus budgets by the gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums] who is a former chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services.”