Trump is putting Ohio jobs and our nation’s security at risk
By: Ohio Democratic Party
Tags: Military, Trump Administration, Jobs, Ohio

Chairman David Pepper at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport: “Across the state, there are $112 million in military construction projects that could be delayed or on the chopping block if the president continues to demand those funds be sent south.”

Ohio’s military bases help keep our country safe.

F-16s from the Ohio Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing in Toledo scrambled to defend the nation’s airspace during the 9/11 attacks.

Service members from the 179th Airlift Wing in Mansfield recently returned from being deployed to the Middle East with “Operation Inherent Resolve.”

The National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is the Department of Defense’s main source for intelligence and analysis of air, space and cyber threats.

Our state’s military installations are vital to our national security, and they’re also an important part of our economy. The defense industry has a $13.7 billion impact here in Ohio, and it supports more than 60,000 jobs.

The president is putting those Ohio jobs — as well as our national security — at risk for what Sen. Sherrod Brown is calling “a vanity project” at the southern border.

… Brown said it is unwise for the administration of Republican President Donald Trump to announce it will divert $1.5 billion more from military funding to help build 78 more miles of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border amid Trump’s concern about asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants. The move, which officials said largely comes from money no longer needed to support U.S. troops in Afghanistan, may not affect the Rickenbacker air wing, but more funding shifts could imperil Ohio’s largest military operation, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, the senator said. “That’s a really bad idea,” Brown said. “Those numbers were thought through and done right and for the president to take that money … for what I think is a vanity project … don’t undermine our national security, which that decision effectively does.”

It’s not just Wright-Patt that could be impacted. Across the state, more than $100 million in military construction projects could be on the chopping block because of President Donald Trump’s fake national emergency declaration.

In Richland County, local officials cited a $13 million renovation at the Ohio Air National Guard Base at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport as a project that could lose funding.

In Lucas County, public servants called for a $15 million project at the Toledo Express Airport that would replace the fighter jets’ hangars to be protected.

In northeastern Ohio, Sherrod criticized potential cuts to a $8.8 million security upgrade at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station and a $7.4 million machine gun range at the Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center.

“Congress has said no to the wall, the public doesn’t support the wall and the president is dug in. He made a campaign promise, but his campaign promise was that Mexico would pay and he seems to have forgotten that. The wall is a bad idea and taking money away from our national defense is a really bad idea with what’s called the gate relocation at YARS. It’s a stupid idea; it’s wrong.”

This isn’t a partisan issue. In the Ohio Statehouse, Democratic and Republican lawmakers are pushing to ensure these military construction projects move forward without delay.

State Rep. Casey Weinstein — a U.S. Air Force veteran — said, “I am pleased to see the state support Ohio’s military installations as a top priority. As lawmakers, we have a responsibility to provide the best support, resources and work environments for all of our constituents. Ohio cannot afford to lose this designated funding for critical projects to the United States’ southern border for a fake emergency pet project on behalf of President Trump. Our servicemen and women deserve better than that.”

It’s time for the president to stop playing political games with national security and Ohio jobs.