Obviously, we cannot reduce military spending! There is NO, I repeat, NO waste, fraud or abuse in any part of the Defense budget.-And, we need every single one of those flag officers in the Pentagon. -BTW, I do not believe we will cut military spending by a dime, this year or ever.
Facts are hard to draw.-——July 26, 2:30 p.m., White House Budget director Jack Lew and White House legislative affairs director Rob Nabors went to the Senate to meet with [Senator Majority Leader Harry] Reid and his chief of staff, David Krone.
“We have an idea for a trigger,” Lew said.
“What’s the idea,” Reid asked skeptically.
“Sequestration.”
Reid bent down and put his head between his knees, almost as if he was going to throw up or was having a heart attack. He sat back up and looked at the ceiling. “A couple of weeks ago,” he said, “my staff said to me that there is one more possible” enforcement mechanism: sequestration. He said he told them, “Get the hell out of here. That’s insane. The White House surely will come up with a plan that will save the day. And you come to me with sequestration?”
Well, it could work, Lew and Nabors explained.
What would the impact be?
They would design it so that half the threatened cuts would be from the Defense Department….The idea was to make all of the threatened cuts so unthinkable and onerous that the supercommittee [tasked with making additional cuts] would do its work and come up with its own deficit reduction plan.
Lew and Nabors went through a laundry list of programs that would face cuts.
“This is ridiculous,” Reid said.
That’s the beauty of a sequester, they said, it’s so ridiculous that no one ever wants it to happen. It was the bomb that no one wanted to drop. It actually would be an action-forcing event.
“I get it,” Reid said finally.
Short version: Once tax increases were off the table, the White House staff came up with a sequestration plan that only had spending cuts and sold Harry Reid on the idea. -——Page 326 from “The Price of Politics" by Bob Woodward.
F-35, $1.3 TRILLION for a plane that doesn’t meet any of it’s design standards, and will still cost more in “add ons”, and like the F-22, B-1 and B-2, won’t work. Yes, there IS plenty of room for large cuts in “defense” without any real reduction in capabilities. Oh, right, they’ll just cut the “human resources” of our troops benefits and needs, but not touch a single contractors profit margin for selling us more garbage.
braindead Premium Member about 11 years ago
Obviously, we cannot reduce military spending! There is NO, I repeat, NO waste, fraud or abuse in any part of the Defense budget.-And, we need every single one of those flag officers in the Pentagon. -BTW, I do not believe we will cut military spending by a dime, this year or ever.
jlerner Premium Member about 11 years ago
Facts are hard to draw.-——July 26, 2:30 p.m., White House Budget director Jack Lew and White House legislative affairs director Rob Nabors went to the Senate to meet with [Senator Majority Leader Harry] Reid and his chief of staff, David Krone.
“We have an idea for a trigger,” Lew said.
“What’s the idea,” Reid asked skeptically.
“Sequestration.”
Reid bent down and put his head between his knees, almost as if he was going to throw up or was having a heart attack. He sat back up and looked at the ceiling. “A couple of weeks ago,” he said, “my staff said to me that there is one more possible” enforcement mechanism: sequestration. He said he told them, “Get the hell out of here. That’s insane. The White House surely will come up with a plan that will save the day. And you come to me with sequestration?”
Well, it could work, Lew and Nabors explained.
What would the impact be?
They would design it so that half the threatened cuts would be from the Defense Department….The idea was to make all of the threatened cuts so unthinkable and onerous that the supercommittee [tasked with making additional cuts] would do its work and come up with its own deficit reduction plan.
Lew and Nabors went through a laundry list of programs that would face cuts.
“This is ridiculous,” Reid said.
That’s the beauty of a sequester, they said, it’s so ridiculous that no one ever wants it to happen. It was the bomb that no one wanted to drop. It actually would be an action-forcing event.
“I get it,” Reid said finally.
Short version: Once tax increases were off the table, the White House staff came up with a sequestration plan that only had spending cuts and sold Harry Reid on the idea. -——Page 326 from “The Price of Politics" by Bob Woodward.
Chillbilly about 11 years ago
Maybe one day our military will be small enough to only protect America instead of Israel, Europe and China.
Chillbilly about 11 years ago
If you don’t believe that we’re subsidizing global defense in China’s circle of influence then I don’t believe you have a solid grasp of this issue.
Dtroutma about 11 years ago
F-35, $1.3 TRILLION for a plane that doesn’t meet any of it’s design standards, and will still cost more in “add ons”, and like the F-22, B-1 and B-2, won’t work. Yes, there IS plenty of room for large cuts in “defense” without any real reduction in capabilities. Oh, right, they’ll just cut the “human resources” of our troops benefits and needs, but not touch a single contractors profit margin for selling us more garbage.