"But if we cut military jobs, there will be huge unemployment..."

"But if we cut military jobs, there will be huge unemployment." So reads one of the comments on another board. I think this is a very good point. Libertarians will have to prove you wrong. I am good with them being inspired to prove that the private sector can do alone more than what the government and the private sector does now. I think that we would get some bounce in the private sector simply by bringing national debt down and by getting our forces out of oil rich countries. I think the problem hits when armament factories shut down. This is where progressives step in and offer a peaceful green jobs plan. I think we win the argument in this situation but we don't get to have that argument if the neo-cons and corporatists put their permanent war economy in place. In fact they already have it in place; they just need to expand the wars we are in now. Here is where Obama is vulnerable to neo-cons. He thinks that the previous stimulus was enough or all that he can get now. The latter is probably true. The problem is he will not get a great deal of jobs growth by cutting domestic discretionary spending while maintaining current defense spending. The political environment is all about cutting spending. Progressives have to make sure that the cuts are from the MIC,not Medicare, Medicaid and social security. Ron Paul seems to be willing to make that deal as long as we get a net cut in overall spending. When all is said and done, Obama gets us at best 7% unemployment rate at the end of his second term. People will not stand for this, and the unending war Keynesians will fill the void (while using their predictable free market rhetoric). Progressives need to bite the bullet (so to speak) and make this deal with a lesser devil in 2012 in order to get what we really want in 2016. We progressives, like it or not, have only one way to be relevant and that is to get a Ron Paul nominated and elected. I wish it could be different. Had the president been less compromising and insisted on including a universally available public option, immediately going all out in building the green economy and completely getting  out of the current wars, we would not even have to consider this alternative tact. Now that he has failed our agenda we must pick ourselves up and make a new plan. Unfortunately the plan has to take a longer view or else, short and long term, we all lose to the permanent police state war economy.