If the debt commission fails, automatic spending cuts will slash defense. A new report, put out by the aerospace industry, claims that such an outcome could cost America a million jobs. Ackerman is unimpressed:

While there’s no doubt that defense cuts will mean job losses, there’s also no doubt that a report prepared for an industry so reliant on defense cash will paint a stark picture of what happens if that cash is threatened. Congressmembers looking to get reelected pay attention, since fighting for defense money as a jobs program is easier than making a case for what a sensible, appropriately funded defense strategy ought to be. That’s the problem with reports like these: They make it easy to ignore structural economic and defense problems and imply that all will be well if the cash keeps flowing.

Dylan Matthews takes a closer look at how much cutting defense would hurt the economy in the short term. Yglesias addressed this issue a couple of weeks ago: