Defense Budget Good to Massachusetts

The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts is one of the biggest winners of Federal dollars. Much of this is attributed to large weapons systems that Raytheon, General Dynamics and General Electric manufacture. The article illustrates how dependent the US economy is on the defense budget. Of interest, also, is that the $11.8 Billion that flows to the state from Washington supports only 32,000 jobs directly. This makes clear that the average defense related job is high paying and that weapon systems are expensive.

The only problem with an economy like this is that if the defense budget does see contraction then the state can be harmed exponentially. Unlike some states, though, Massachusetts is not dependent on US military bases for this. It is pretty much all contracting. Another threat might be if the companies, like Raytheon of GD, decide to move to another, lower cost state. To prevent that the state relies on its Congressional delegation to make it hard, if not impossible, for the existing work to move. This is what has prevented General Electric from moving its jet engine plant from the state. If Obama does go through with his expressed intent to cut back on missile defense then that might affect Raytheon and other companies negatively. This is why it sometimes is hard for Congress to cut back on specific weapon systems and the budget as a whole.