I'll tell you one more time, people...

... the purpose of the military is to provide for the common defense the most efficient way possible. It is not an employment service.

How a base closing would impact the local economy should not enter into the decision making at all.

These people disagree with me.

The loss of the submarine base would have had disastrous effects on the
state's economy. Economists estimated that it would threaten 31,000 jobs statewide, including more than 8,000 at the base. They feared a threatened ripple effect that would spread to military subcontractors who do work for the base or shipbuilder Electric Boat.

It is not the military's responsibility to provide people with make-work. If the economy's in trouble, why should it be the Department of Defense's responsibility to address it? Don't we have another department for that?