Even Defense Spending Can Be Cut
December 25, 2012 at 6:48 pm in News by Tea Party Patriots 50 Comments
With Christmas and New Year’s upon us, the National Support Team of Tea Party Patriots is taking some time to be with our families and clear our heads of politics, barring any major legislation passing through Congress. Please enjoy these posts from the last few months – a Best of Tea Party Patriots, if you will. Below is the second post, published on September 13, which discusses how despite what many Republicans claim, defense spending is and should be a target for spending cuts.
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With the fight over sequestration continuing and both parties navigating the legislative waters of trying to overturn various parts of the Budget Control Act, the coming “cuts” to the growth of spending at the Department of Defense (DoD) have come increasingly under close examination by Members of Congress, especially Republicans. While every department in the federal government should be taking at least a haircut (and others should be eliminated entirely), the DoD is a unique department for two reasons: first, many Republican politicians simply see defense spending as untouchable, something grassroots conservatives often disagree with. The second reason defense spending is unique is that military defense of the country is actually a constitutional responsibility of the federal government, and as such sequestration’s cuts could have a negative impact on the defense of our nation.
However, in an interview with CBS News caught by Right Scoop, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has highlighted some spending at the Pentagon that even the most ardent defender of the DoD should support eliminating. This spending includes a study on aliens and on-base micro-breweries, as well as the removal of skunks from golf courses on bases. Oh, and a caffeine intake iPhone application and Twitter slang.
According to CBS, Coburn has a report coming that will show $85 billion could be cut from the Pentagon over ten years. This is in addition to other reports Coburn has released with more significant reforms to defense spending, such as reformation of the contracting system. While $85 billion is not a massive amount of money compared to our debt (over $16 trillion) or the budget of the Pentagon (over $500 billion), neither is $8.5 billion annually something to ignore. As the debate over sequestration continues, credit should be given to Coburn for finding ways to cut defense spending that will not harm America’s ability to defend itself.
I hope you guys are planning a primary challenge to that RINO Chris Christie in NJ.
Hopefully not as we should focus on stuff that really matters.
A governor wearing a Republican costume while sabotaging a presidential election giving another term to Marxist communists seems like “stuff that really matters” to me.
You are condusing vengance with strategy. What can Cristie do now…refuse to let the Tea Pary rally with Snooky on the Jersey Shore? Compare that with stopping ObamaCare and gun control.
Is there an active TEA Party in New Jersey? And, they aren’t concerned that their governor wearing a Republican costume and sabotaging Republican candidates in exchange for the Democrats arranging no competition for him in the next election for governor? Only an idiot would think that is the only deal involved between Christi and the Democrats.
How about it? Does the TEA Party exist in New Jersey?
Prove it.
DB about 2/3 of the New Jersey Tea Party groups are dead…no activity in a year. 40 or 50 have had no activity in 4 months. About 20 appear to be active in the last month. So that is probably 400 active members.
DB – It’s a stretch to say Christie lost Mitt the elections. If you look at the polls, Mitt never had a chance. The Liberals did a good job smearing Mitt from the beginning. From the 47% tape, not releasing more than 2 yrs of tax returns, being a Mormon and representing the country club elites really hurt him.
Mitt was a plain bad candidate
Mitt was going to win until Chris Christi showed his true colors and created the 5-point swing observed in all the polls, culminating in a 50-49 final tally.
Without Christi sabotaging the election and creating that 5-point swing, Obama gets no more than 47 percent of the vote. Historically, 47 percent equates to a significant loss.
HF, it seems logical to me, looking at the data. Day one, Romney has a certain position in all the polls. Day two Christi publicly chastises Romney in one move then with the very next move does exactly what he said to Romney he does not have time to do and prances around with Obama. Day three begins the 5-point slide observed in all the polls begins that culminates in roughly a 50-49 vote tally. That 5-point shift in all the polls is related to the final 50-49 outcome.
What if Christi, formerly a TEA Party favorite, didn’t publicly chastise Romney? What if Christi acted in the same manner as his public chastisement of Romney stated, and he didn’t have time to prance around with Obama all day because he was too busy in the command center? What if Obama were forced to go to Christi in the Command Center, instead of Christi abandoning what he claimed to be a critical action to prance around with Obama all day?
And, what about the revelation, after Christi sabotaged the election that the Democrats aren’t going to challenge Christi in the next election for governor?
Do you really believe this was the only deal between Christi and the Democrats?
We were hoodwinked by Christi. And, Christi showing his true colors when his handlers demanded he save the election for their side is blatantly obvious.
Merry Christmas to my fellow Americans! America is still the greatest nation in the World! Hopefully we can stay together and keep it that way for generations.
So many DOD civil servants could be done away with in favor of contractors. I will admit that contractors aren’t as subject to scrutiny as civil servants but I don’t see where government workers are easily disciplined. There’s an old joke about someone who was employed as a DOD civil servant and resigned so he could start working. Finally let’s ditch the Davis-Bacon act and let the job market decide how much to pay what workers we need.
Contractors are already doing all the work to support procurement programs. Any discussion of this is a diversion.
The hard truth is, EVERY line item in the government must be cut. How much each is cut is a function of Congress. There should be no plan approved that doesn’t have some cut to EVERY line item in the government.
I think rejecting the farm bill with 80 percent of it being welfare was a very good start. Take all welfare out of every bill, then discuss the bill. Put all welfare where it belongs, in a welfare bill. After Congress has determined what it needs for government, then whatever is left over can be considered for welfare disbursal. Put the Democrats in the position where, if they want to have more wwelfare, they have to have less government.
Ken,
The problem there is that contractors cost more. We’d need more money form some place.
What’s worst is companies like Halliburton hire non-Americans at 1/4 the pay. Look at all the contract workers in IRAQ and Afghanistan, most are Indian, Filipino or Indonesian. That’s free markets…
Just an aside for those who have experienced the problem of having their posts “awaiting moderation”.
It’s just a “glitch”. There’s no reason it happens- or doesn’t happen, and not even the Website Tech Guy knows why it happens or how to fix the “glitch”.
So, don’t be offended if it happens to you, it could happen to anyone.
Craig, I experimented with a post and discovered that including the verbiage “G_l_a_s_s__ S_t_e_a_g_a_l_l__ A_c_t” caused the post to be held for censorship. If I typed it as you see it here, the post was made immediately visible. If I typed it as you would normally type it, the post was held for censorship. For that discussion, I repeated the experiment repeatedly. I think you commented on my testing, seeing the test posts. I don’t have the time to test for all words. This is just one example of a word/phrase that repeatedly held the post up for censorship.
There is obviously a subroutine scanning for certain words, or phrases. And, for some reason, there is obviously some posters here (Joe, for example) that have the ability to scan their posts for inclusion of these “offending” words.
Well DB, I just repeated what the Website Tech Guy told me. “It’s a glitch”.
There isn’t any censorship other than of those who have repeatedly been flagged for offensive posts. That’s what I was told.
I understand, Craig.
Please forgive that I dominated the board during these tests to determine at least one word the censor algorithm was programmed to find. I know it was irritating to see a plethora of test posts. When I isolated one word that caused the post to be held up, I just posted that one word, and a post containing just that one word was not allowed to be viewed. If I put special characters between the letters of the word, such as an underscore, the censor program passed it and allowed it to be viewed.
Somehow, regardless of author, the inclusion of the “offending” word caused the post to be held from public view.
Please forgive that I dominated the board during these tests to determine at least one word the censor algorithm was programmed to find. I know it was irritating to see a plethora of test posts.
If the algorithm hasn’t been changed, including “G*l*a*s*s S*t*e*a*g*a*l*l Act” as you would normally type it will cause the post to be kept from public view. I’m sure there are other key words being scanned for.
Good luck trying to cut any funding to the Defense Contractors. I see the gov’t cutting spending on Veterans Services but the American Military Industrial Complex is too powerful and entrenched.
They cut 4,000 conractors when they shut down the Space shuttle
Jerry, but they created even more in other industries. I thought Obama would have massive cuts but he was too scared.
The two strongest lobbyist are the financial and defense industries. The financial industry can wreck our economy and demand huge bailouts resulting in a Nationalized banking system with no real laws passed.
The defense industry has managed to keep us in a War time economy since World War 2. That’s what you call power…
Jerry, but they created even more jobs in other defense_industries. I thought Obama would have massive_cuts but he was too scared.
The two strongest lobbys are the financial_and_defense industries. The financial industry can wreck our economy and demand_huge_bailouts resulting in a nationalized_banking_system with no real laws passed.
The defense_industry has managed to keep us in a wartime_economy since ww2. That’s what you call power…
True, but look at the increase in jobs in other defense industries. All you gotta do is look at the stock price for companies like Boeing, Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin.
What we need is political clarification of the “mission ” of U.S. armed forces.
Are they for defense of the U.S.?
Are they for the defense of U.S. “interests”?
Are they a “global force for good”?
I can’t see any Constitutional authorization for anything but defense of the U.S.
Watching a Military Channel show yesterday, I discovered we have 27 E-3 AWACS aircraft. Just one of them is capable of monitoring everything in the air above an area the size of California….
Craig,
The military has been used to protect US companies since the Marines chased the pirates out of North Africa in 1797. On occasion we have used them to prevent genocide like in Bosnia. For 50 year after WWII we used them to halt the spread of Communism which we viewed as a threat to Capitalism.
I’d say it means all of the above.
Perfect example of their power is the US Military tells Congress they do not need more M1A2 Abrams tanks saving $3 billion. But 173 House members send a letter on to Defense Secretary to keep refurbishing tanks. General Dynamics has been giving campaign contributions to these guys.
Another example is the Lockheed F-35 Variant. The most expensive weapon system in our history. Cost and timeline keep going up and American taxpayers just keep paying. Lockheed was smart about this one, over 80% of the States are involved in it’s production.
Hellfire,
Excellent points. We could cut defense 30% and nobody would even notice. We spend more than the next 15 countries combined.
We probably could but the fact our own Congress refuses to listen to the Generals is pure craziness. When has the military ever turned down funding? I’m just saying the Defense industry along with the banking industry control our gov’t.
Jerry,
Yes, I knew we had been doing “all of the above” for a long time.
Can we afford to continue doing “all of the above”?
Do we have the manpower to do “all of the above”?
Is it Constitutional to do “all of the above”?
It’s a question that should be discussed nationally, and I’m glad you’re not making the final decision, although Obama Democrats seem to want to keep expanding our military “missions”, so I guess you would be no worse.
Craig,
I know the Libertarians would have waited in the 1940′s until the Japanese were actually landing on the beaches south of Los Angeles and the Nazis had taken Long Island before calling out the citizen soldiers with their muskets. Happily there were no Libertarians running anything during WWII.
Bush expanded our military mission in a useless war in Iraq. Obama hasn’t invaded anybody and has cut military spending.
The world the Constitution was written in is not the world you live in today. In a global world enemy, defense and other words have new meanings. Why do you keep wanting to go back to 1789? I’m taking a guess here since you do use the Internet. I guess you could be living on a farm and plowing the land with an oxen.
Actually Jerry, there were a lot of Americans who wanted to stay out of WWII.
What if speculation isn’t informative at all.
The Japanese didn’t want to fight us, they just wanted us to leave them alone and keep trading with them. Of course they were raping China and Southeast Asia, but I don’t think they killed anywhere near the number of people that Mao did.
Don’t give me that “progressive” nonsense about the Constitution not being up to date. It was last modified in 1992. It can be amended as needed, anytime, it just has to be done per Article V.
Ignoring the law because you think it’s quaint and outdated is not a legal option.
Craig, the Japanese was going against American interest throughout Asia so why would we leave them alone and sell them oil? That is why most of our Navy was in the Pacific before Pearl Harbor. One reason why we have such a large military is to insure we remain the main superpower in the World.
Hellfire,
I think a complete and thorough review of the costs and consequences of the U.S being the main superpower in the world is in order.
It’s been a while since the end of WII, there should be enough evidence to make an evaluation.
As the worlds main superpower, what have we accomplished?
How many of our soldiers have died?
How many have been maimed and crippled?
How much tax money has been spent?
How many dictators have we supported?
How many governments have we subverted?
How many of the worlds people have we abandoned to communism (and now to radical Islam)?
How many civilians, men, women an children have we killed?
You can tell me the good things we’ve done. Here’s a few of the worst.
We defeated the Japanese, and then abandoned China to communism.
We defeated Hitler, then abandoned half of Europe to communism.
We lost 50,000 soldiers in Vietnam, then abandoned Vietnam to communism.
We lot 35,000 soldiers in Korea, then abandoned half that country to communism.
There’s lots more in involving denying free elections to people, subverting elected governments, propping up dictators, etc.
Tell me the good stuff….
Craig, I agree with most of what you write. However, the United States has been in a wartime economy since WW2. Remember President Eisenhower’s farewell address to the American people warning of the “military industrial complex” and the only way to stop it would be an “informed” citizenry. I think we as a people have failed in this due to the military complex’s ability to buy off our politicians and to use scare tactics/propaganda i.e. Communism and now Terrorism.
Remember Mitt wanted to increase military spending by $2 trillion and was ready to go to war against the Iranians if they pursued a nuclear weapon. Sadly, it is the Republicans who have always been on the side of the military complex. Also, it was the NEOCON’s who wanted Clinton to invade IRAQ even before 9/11.
Unless we get campaign finance reform we will not be able to stop the military complex.
Jerry, The two strongest lobbyist are the financial and defense industries. The financial industry can wreck our economy and demand huge bailouts resulting in a Nationalized banking system with no real laws passed.
The defense industry has managed to keep us in a War time economy since World War 2. That’s what you call power…
Craig,
Yes there were Isolationists and the German American Bund that wanted to keep the US out of the war. FDR was prevented from doing much before Pearl Harbor. If had taken much longer we’d all be speaking German today.
So we forced the Japanese to fight us? Who says we had to sell them enough oil to take over all of Asia. Don’t governments get free choice on what they do in Libertarianism?
Well we managed to figure out that the right to bear arms does not include the right to personal RPGs, surface to air missiles or personal nuclear weapons even though those are all certainly arms. And we didn’t need to amend the Constitution to do it either. We just realized that “arms” in 1789 did not mean “arms” in 2013. It’s common sense.
Do you support personal nuclear weapons?
Jerry,
Nobody really can know what would have happened if we hadn’t entered WWII.
We didn’t “force” the Japanese to attack us, but our political decisions lead them to make political decisions that they probably would not have otherwise made. and nobody can know what would have happened if we’d stayed out of that and just kept trading with them.
I suppose the worst outcome would have been that “progressives” would have taken over the world….
Arms to the Founders, as they made clear to the American people in their discussions in the Federalist papers, meant arms equivalent to the arms possessed by the military forces of the day. Arms retains it’s original meaning.
Craig,
Nobody can say for certain that pigs can’t fly either, but if we hadn’t entered WWII we’d be speaking German you have a really nasty government to live under. Worse than these liberal/socialists/communist we have now.
A while back you said that progressives rule the whole world, so which is it? They would if Germany had won WWII or they do.
Funny but nobody is worried about the governmentt taking away your musket these days so meanings did change.
Jerry, you mist be the only person in the world with a crystal ball that works.
Since you are, what would have happened if Spain had defeated England with its Armada?
In answer to your question, if Germany had for some bizarre reason decided to invade the U.S., and had been foolish enough to try, they would never have conquered America. No sane rational person would believe that.
My point was, Hitler’s National Socialist Party was “progressive”.
“Progressives” aren’t even sure what the meaning of the word “is” is. That might explain the lack of meaning in your final statement.
Craig,
My predictive ability is due entirely to practical thinking.
Would you be happy living on a planet with Hitler running half of it? Question if I might ask: are you Jewish?
Craig, Seriously?!? Without American involvement in World War 2, the World would be a very different place. For one, the Germans would control all of Europe including the Soviet Union. Hitler wanted the Soviet Union especially the Ukraine as German “living space”. The United States emerged as the main superpower because of the devastation of Europe after the war resulting in our future decades of prosperity. Remember our involvement in World War 2 got us out of the Great Depression. Also, it was gov’t spending in the war not the job creator that got the economy going. Why would companies create war material and jobs without US gov’t contracts.
I agree Hellfire, the world would be a different place if things had happened differently in the past.
Neither Germany’s National Socialism nor the U.S.S.R.’s Communism are viable economic systems. Without support from the West, the U.S.S.R. would have collapsed much sooner than it did.
Perhaps Germany and the Soviet Union would have fought each other to exhaustion and both collapsed, allowing their people to form governments along the lines of the U.S. Constitution?
WWII did NOT get the U.S. out of the depression. It did get us back to “full employment” by creating jobs in war industries and various branches of the military, but personal and household incomes remained depressed, and the availability of goods and services in the private economy was still low. The GOVERNMENT experienced a time of huge growth, the private economy remained in depression.
The economy did not start to grow until the end of the war, when most of the New Deal programs were ended, the government withdrew from most of its massive interventions in the economy, and people were once again allowed to go about their business in a mostly free economy.
This is interesting!
WWII didn’t end the great Depression. The private economy didn’t start to grow again until the end of the war, when the government ended most of FDR’s New Deal programs and halted war production, putting millions of defense industry workers and military personnel out of work at the same time.
Jefferson, check the profits for private companies during WW2 in the United States.
People have to decide what is the relationship between our ability to project force and our economic health. If we become very weak, like the Democrats want, will the world continue to give us a priority in trade?
Of course, in the Utopian world, the ability to project force has no relationship to preferred trading parthers and agreements. That is not true in the real world. The only thing we can do is determine what the appropriate balance is.
I think the health of our economy is directly proportional to our ability to project force. How and when we use that ability is a different discussion.
Is “projecting force” anything like national defense?
It sounds more like something you do when you want to subjugate other countries to your will.
Jefferson, we have been subjugating other countries and people since our existence.