Yesterday, we noted that this recession is projected to be milder locally than the last one was–mainly because during the last one, Boeing was shedding jobs like _. Today, the Seattle Times reports that the new Pentagon budget proposed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates looks like it will be cutting more from Boeing than from other contractors. Among the programs facing cuts or restructuring are the F-22 fighter jet (this one’s a favorite target of defense-spending reformers–read the Atlantic Monthly’s case for it, and several cases against it), Future Combat Systems (drones and other steps toward remote-control warfare and the realization of Predator), and the C-17 military-cargo plane, the manufacture of which is responsible for the employment of a cool 5,000. Gates’ budget remains just a proposal at this point, but if it goes through, the numbers in the Times’ article appear to suggest it will jeopardize at least 6,500 of the Boeing’s 9,000 local defense jobs. It’s still a far cry from the 27,000+ Boeing cut in the last recession, but then this is only the defense sector. Boeing’s commercial plane operations have their own problems–orders are plunging.