This resource page was produced by the Project on Government Oversight and allies. Please share in an effort to combat spin coming from the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex about potential cuts to the Pentagon's budget.

In their campaign to stop reductions in Pentagon spending and protect their profits, big defense contractors are spending millions on studies, rallies, and lobbying Congress with the false claim that defense cuts will result in the loss of more than one million American jobs. But Pentagon contractors’ threats to send layoff notices to thousands of employees in the days preceding the Presidential election are political stunts. The public has a right to know the truth behind the rhetoric and fear mongering.

By Michael T. Klare

Originally posted at TomDispatch.com.

The Great Drought of 2012 has yet to come to an end, but we already know that its consequences will be severe. With more than one-half of America’s counties designated as drought disaster areas, the 2012 harvest of corn, soybeans, and other food staples is guaranteed to fall far short of predictions. This, in turn, will boost food prices domestically and abroad, causing increased misery for farmers and low-income Americans and far greater hardship for poor people in countries that rely on imported U.S. grains.

War Costs has pointed out before the moaning, groaning and outright deception coming from defense industry titans like Lockheed Martin -- and their defenders on Capitol Hill -- over planned defense cuts, supposedly a menace their companies cannot survive if you believe their rhetoric. They attempt to paint themselves as victims of sequestration put in motion by the Budget Control Act of 2011, voted for by the likes of Sen. John McCain, who hit the road last week with other senators to scare swing states about possible job losses as a consequence of the planned cuts he helped put into motion.

That the revolving door between the U.S. government, both the executive or legislative branches, and the defense industry is alive and well is no secret. But chalk another one up for Capitol Hill. In addition to a top Northrop Grumman official joining the House Armed Services Committee in 2011 (after receiving a lucrative severance bonus on his way out) to oversee the very same weapons systems he lobbied for, now it's the Senate Armed Services Committee's turn.

As Business Insider notes, one of the Pentagon's latest contracts will deliver $171.4 million to Russian state-controlled arms dealer Rosoboronexport, lead supplier of weapons to the brutal regime in Syria.

As Robert Greenwald and I pointed out in our latest post, the defense industry and their protectors are turning out en masse this week to oppose defense cuts planned to take effect Jan. 2, 2013. One of those protectors -- actually, THE protector on Capitol Hill -- is House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.). McKeon called on industry leaders to testify today in front of the committee to warn of the job losses and other stresses the industry faces if the cuts happen.