As the budget super-committee convenes, the war industry has begun a huge lobbying effort to protect its taxpayer-paid profits

The new deficit commission held its first substantive meeting on 13 September, and the military contractors were out in force to protect their profits. They'll be working to cash in on hundreds millions of dollars in campaign donations and lobbying spending, and they will deploy their favourite (and bogus) "jobs" spin. But members of the committee should not be fooled. The war industry is interested in one thing: continuing profits at our expense.

Tuesday morning, a campaign called "Second to None", backed by the largest names in the military contracting industry, staged a "march to the Hill". These contractors are armed with fresh talking points and backed by 843 lobbyists (many of whom are former staffers of deficit committee members), along with deep campaign donation histories with members of Congress. Every bit of this influence will be used to prevail upon the committee not to call for cuts to military spending in its final report to Congress.