In case you were wondering if the debt-ceiling pact has ushered in a new age of thinking about military spending, the answer is no, hell no and no way. The hawks are determined to keep cuts in the Pentagon budget to a minimum over the next decade, and the lobbying has already begun. Or rather, it is being stepped up, because lobbying for military spending is relentless.

Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks money in politics, predicted that the deficit-reduction talks will produce a “lobbying-palooza” on Capitol Hill.

“Any bill that involves this kind of money, the companies with a vested interest are going to spend whatever it takes to protect their bottom lines,” she said.

But the "lobbyists" don't just hail from the industrial portion of the military-industrial-congressional complex. Indeed, the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, has posted a letter on the Pentagon website noting potential dangers from ill-thought-out cuts, which, of course, sounds like plain old common sense. But he also called deep cuts "unacceptable."