55 House Members Tell Deficit Commission: Cut Defense

[ensho]

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010104113/55-house-members-tell-deficit-commission-cut-defense


Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul top a list of 55 signers of a letter to the White House Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform calling on the commission "in the strongest terms" to "include among its recommendations substantial reductions" in future defense spending.

In a briefing with reporters, Frank, D-Mass., said that he has reason to believe that the commission will take the letter seriously. He said that while conversations he has had with the two commission co-chairs, Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, have not led to specific commitments, he said considering reining in defense spending is definitely on the table.

"We are in a zero-sum game" in which the nation either has to reduce its defense spending or make cuts elsewhere that will reduce the quality of life for Americans, Frank said. Given a dysfunctional budget process in Congress, the deficit commission, Frank went on to say, "is the first time you will have a forum in which these choices can be made."
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yes, keep pressing Barney. you have to wack your way thru a lot of brass. brass that has been trained to kill.

[liberal N proud]

1. Yeah, Like that will ever happen

That is the monster that will consume us.

[ensho]

3. only if we let them. military brass are not super men. they put on their

pants one leg at a time. get constipated. have doubts. get pimples. sometimes listen to their little heads first., etc.

the brass can be got.

[Grown2Hate]

5. It's not so much "the brass" that I'm worried about. It's the contractors that stand

to lose MILLIONS in business if we cut defense projects/withdraw from our wars/cut the defense budget at all. THOSE are the real monsters. Small planes need to be avoided in all 55 cases, but I applaud them WHOLEHEARTEDLY for their courage.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Once, just once, I'd like to hear a sitting congressman say

"We are a democratic republic - not an empire. There is no rational reason for us to maintain nearly a thousand overseas military bases at the cost of tens of billions of dollars every year. Do we see any of our rivals, or our friends, doing the same? How many extra-national military installations does China have? Or Russia? Or Britain? Or Brazil? Would our relations with Japan be better, or worse, if we were to withdraw the tens of thousands we have stationed in their home islands and in Okinawa? Need we be reminded that the entire reason for the 9/11 attack on our nation was because of radicals who opposed our military bases in their holy lands?

How much blood and treasure can we continue to spend to be the biggest cock in the roost?"

[displacedvermoter]

6. How about a Nobel Peace Prize winning President?

He could say that too!

[chimpymustgo]

7. Peace. HA! Pathetic.

[Enthusiast]

8. There is simply no

justification for this level of military spending. None whatsoever.