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GOP Rep: Obama Cutting Pentagon Budget, Trying To Charm Enemies Instead
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) came forward yesterday with one of the strangest critiques of the defense budget proposal thus far.
While President Obama's short changing of America's Armed Forces is deeply disappointing, it is - unfortunately - not a surprise. Throughout his campaign and during his short tenure as President, he has made it clear that he believes his charm and eloquence are adequate substitutes for a strong military. That will not work. Whether President Obama knows it or not, President Bush's foreign enemies were also America's enemies. He cannot charm them out of their opposition to our country. The cuts announced today, however, take that naivete to a dangerous new level. I intend to do everything I can to make sure they do not actually occur.Obama has returned from his trip to Europe and Iraq now, but only in the last several hours. Time was that Republicans thought it unacceptable to criticize a president on foreign policy issues when he's out of the country.
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Josh
Matt
Eric
(R-OK) - 'nuff said.
April 8, 2009 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
In light of the fact that gates is the face of this budget and he was a king appointee, I doubt that this republican whining will get any traction in the voting population at large.
Go Gates. He is the man. Let's get some sanity back in defense and protect the us from real threats, not fantasies and stop lining the pockets of republican campaign contributors. Why do republicans hate america so much? They really are unpatriotic.
April 8, 2009 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if I'd call it bringing sanity back. It's more like we've managed to nab one of the 300 straight razors held by a maniac on a decades-long, worldwide rampage. He's still got 299 more.
And there are plenty of pockets yet to be lined, especially as we spend more on "defense" than all other countries combined. Again, with another metaphor, maybe after we nabbed one of those 300 razors, we also were able to snatch a $100 bill hanging out of the pocket of said maniac. His pockets are still stuffed and overflowing with cash and weapons, though.
April 8, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
How the heck does this Obama guy expect us to fight the turrists with only 180 F-22's? Osama is improving his Air Force while we sit on our hands. Unbelievable.
April 8, 2009 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
so I am still confused as to whether this is a spending increase or decrease. As stated in the previous article, the budget number has been increased. But we have been playing a numbers game for years with putting wars on supplemental tabs. Does the proposed budget put the usually supplemental money in the budget? If that is the case then it is a spending decrease, and a fairly significant one. Or are the supplementals left out?
April 8, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hi Storm:
The $534 billion proposed is for the base budget. Some of that $534 billion comes from programs that were once paid for in supplementals, but which Gates wants migrated into the base.
There will still be supplementals. This years supplemental will probably be slighly small smaller than last year's supplemental (in part because of these migrations). But the total (base + supplemental) will nonetheless also be higher this year than the total was last years.
Apples to apples, it's a spending increase. Oranges to oranges it's also a spending increase.
April 8, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
thx.
is there an estimate of what the oranges are?
(base+supplemental last year vs this year)
April 8, 2009 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
the GOP has NOTHING -- NOTHING AT ALL -- to offer nowadays, so the only thing they can do, esp in light of new poll numbers that came out just two days ago (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/politics/07poll.html?_r=3&hp), is LIE about Obama's agenda and anything else they can think of.. today the GOP is truly on the ropes politically, and their pathetic attempts to discredit any aspect of Obama's agenda is falling totally on deaf ears -- except for the ears of Republicans (and not even all Reps at that) and right-wingers and religious fanatics and gay-haters, etc etc..
April 8, 2009 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hi Storm:
The $534 billion proposed is for the base budget. Some of that $534 billion comes from programs that were once paid for in supplementals, but which Gates wants migrated into the base.
There will still be supplementals. This years supplemental will probably be slighly small smaller than last year's supplemental (in part because of these migrations). But the total (base + supplemental) will nonetheless also be higher this year than the total was last years.
Apples to apples, it's a spending increase. Oranges to oranges it's also a spending increase.
April 8, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
cole wouldn't know charm if it bit him on the face
April 8, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is touching a 3rd rail here ... The military industrial complex is very big, very rich and very powerful.
I know, I know, he is proposing to GROW the defense budget by 4%.
But based on the growth under Reagan and Bush, this FEELS like a cut to the aerospace & defense industry.
I feel proud that Obama again is going after a difficult stronghold of the conservatives. That is, they are more than willing to blow money on useless defense projects while slashing social programs.
But at some point, he is going to start losing these battles.
April 8, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...Throughout his campaign and during his short tenure as President, he has made it clear that he believes his charm and eloquence are adequate substitutes for a strong military. That will not work. Whether President Obama knows it or not, President Bush's foreign enemies were also America's enemies. He cannot charm them out of their opposition to our country..."
Too bad Representative Cole lied about Obama's program and policies, but that's to be expected. Cole is, after all, a Republican, and they do nothing but lie.
Look at the programs Gates boosted in the presentation - the Special Forces additions, the added drone programs, the vehicles for counter-insurgency operations. Those are precisely the programs the nation needs to take the fight to those enemies Cole claims threaten America. If they do, then Obama's program and policies will lessen that threat more than the legacy policies Obama inherited from the Bush administration. This truth should smack Cole in the face every time he tries peddle this cant about Obama's defense policies. Obama's policies are stronger than Bush's and that should scare a Republican.
April 8, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink