Federal budget deficit impact on NoVA (contractors, military, airplanes)

[destinedtodave]

For the past few years it seems like the DC region has been least affected by the financial crisis in the whole nation. Do you Northern Virginians think this will change as the government tightens its belt to get the national debt under control? I know many companies in the area depend on federal contracts.

How do you think this will relate to infrastructure, employment, public services, etc?

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by decafdave

For the past few years it seems like the DC region has been least affected by the financial crisis in the whole nation. Do you Northern Virginians think this will change as the government tightens its belt to get the national debt under control? I know many companies in the area depend on federal contracts.

How do you think this will relate to infrastructure, employment, public services, etc?

I don't really believe it's going to happen. They are just all talk. I think they are going to do their best to stick to the federal worker but, despite all that is said, they won't touch their precious business buddies (the contractors) and they will continue to go largely unmonitored and sucking off the federal budget (which no one seems to realize). To many politicians are beholden to the military industrial corporate complex. Do I sound bitter? I'm not really. Just have worked in this industry for a LONG time as both a contractor and federal worker and it's the same-old, same-old. All talk, nothing ever happens.

So, no I don't think you'll see much change in the NoVA area.

[Caladium]

Haven't we beaten this poor horse to death, in fact far beyond death?

[user8]

companies still fight over office space in nova. i don't see this ever changing. the question is whether infrastructure can keep up. my guess is no, given the constant influx of transients into the "recession-proof" bubble.

have fun with those commutes. i don't miss them.

[shamrock847]

Originally Posted by decafdave

For the past few years it seems like the DC region has been least affected by the financial crisis in the whole nation. Do you Northern Virginians think this will change as the government tightens its belt to get the national debt under control? I know many companies in the area depend on federal contracts.

How do you think this will relate to infrastructure, employment, public services, etc?

The largest item in the federal budget is entitlement spending. Any substantial efforts to reduce spending will have to address those programs. Because this spending is spread all over the country, the impact here will likely be no different than in many other areas.

Military spending, another large budget item, is also spread around quite a bit between the various locations of military personnel and contractors. Although there are a lot of contractors here, most of them are involved in providing services of some sort to the government, rather than building the ships, airplanes, tanks or other "hardware" which make up a substantial portion of military spending outside of personnel costs.

Would there be an impact in this area from large reductions in federal spending - yes? But without having any idea of what specific cuts might happen it's impossible to even guess at their impact.