What about the giant elephant in the room?

[Ian62]

78. Not millions

There would be some job losses in the defense industry if real cuts were made - I am talking $500bn+ of annual cuts. (Not the tiny $24bn in the fiscal cliff as it stood.)

You could cut the current Pentagon budget of $105bn a year for 7,000 "contractors" still in Iraq.
That works out at $15 million per job.
I wouldn't be adverse to losing those 7,000 jobs. Not if it means saving most of that $105bn. They are probably blackwater merceneries.

You could massively cut the $170bn currently spent on building and supplying foreign bases.
The building of foreign bases employs a lot of foreign native workers - not Americans.
If you brought the 138,000 military currently stationed in Germany, Japan, South Korea, UK and Italy home - your supply costs would go down significantly.

Similarly stopping the war in Afghanistan would save $88bn a year. It wouldn't mean job losses (well a tiny amount maybe - you wouldn't buy so many bullets).

Cuts to the US defense budget does not affect exports.

America had 79% of the global arms trade in 2011.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175592/engelhardt_monopolizing_war

The defense industry currently receive special tax breaks. They are also making record profits. You could cut the Corporate Tax break - that wouldn't cost jobs.

Also labor costs for the arms industry are about the lowest proportionally of just about any industry and the LEAST productive economic activity.

E.G. You create three times as many jobs for every dollar you put into education compared to every dollar put into the arms industry.

If you want to create jobs - you don't spend your money on the arms industry.