CHICKEN LITTLE AT THE PENTAGON

These guys are well trained to barf up the "talking points" and throw out the "buzz words" like "threat", "danger", "national security" "job loss", blah, blah, blah.

If we cut their budget the country will self-destruct! The "end of days" are here!

They make nonsensical statements about cutting the civilian work force as if that’s where the spending cuts need to be made while they conveniently ignore the billions they waste on useless weapons, nukes that will never be used, armed forces in countries that are allies, $600 toilets, and last, but not least, “private contractors” and the CEO’s they pander to.

Here’s a few facts that the talking points don’t cover;

Given the apocalyptic rhetoric some of these CEOs are using to describe planned reductions in Pentagon spending and their poor track record on job creation, we at POGO wanted to see just how many jobs could be provided for the price of just one of these CEOs. Here’s what we found:

• The average worker in the U.S. earned $45,230 last year. These CEOs were paid more in an average day than the average American worker was paid all of last year.
• According to a 2011 Congressional Budget Office analysis, the median compensation (including basic pay, allowances for food and housing, and tax advantages) for enlisted U.S. military personnel with ten years of experience was about $64,000. Thus, the Pentagon could afford to pay the salary of 335 soldiers with the money from just one top defense contractor’s compensation package.
• The CEOs of these top Pentagon contractors are also making significantly more than their own workers. According to a Deloitte study, the average wage (just salary, not benefits) for the entire aerospace and defense industry in 2010 was $80,175. For the price of one CEO then, these firms could pay the salary of 268 defense and aerospace industry workers.
• Even compared to other CEOs these Pentagon executives are making an enormous amount of money. An Associated Press study of S&P 500 CEO’s (i.e. the largest publicly traded companies) found that the typical CEO received $9.6 million in total compensation last year. Thus, the top Pentagon contractors could afford two CEOs with the compensation they’re using to pay their current CEOs.

CEOs vs. Workers

Click here to see just how much more defense CEOs make than workers.

These five CEOs weren’t even the highest paid heads of Pentagon contractors. That honor goes to David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell, whose $35.7 million compensation package made him the sixth highest paid CEO in the U.S. last year, according to the Associated Press study.

Pentagon Contractor CEO Compensation is Second to None