Martin Feldstein also would urge the Obama Administration to expand military recruiting in the first year of the new Administration’s economic stimulus package. Feldstein, in his appearance before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee yesterday (see above), said it would benefit the economy to attract an extra 30,000 recruits in response to “the larger than usual numbers” of unemployed young men and women. New recruits could sign up for two-year stints to provide a larger pool of reserves, if needed, but then could be returned to the civilian economy with a variety of valuable technical skills that would benefit the nation in the longer term, such as electronics, equipment maintenance, computer programming, and nuclear facility operations, he said.
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
