Posted on 09/22/2008 2:44:51 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Naming Andrew Cuomo as his choice to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission wasn’t the only surprising tidbit to emerge from John McCain’s interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday evening.
The Republican presidential candidate also called for a makeover of the White House — and not the typical new-curtains-and-clean-carpet renovation.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Agreed on ending the protectionist tariffs and the sugar subsidies, especially on sugar cane ethanol from Brazil...but "scrub defense spending"? Wtf?
.
But, no, I don't like where this is going.
Yes. Defense has alot of waste and Fruad (Jack Mutha) in it.
Hmm? Too bad it isn’t The Onion or Scrapleface.
McCain = Arnie
Beware!!
The next thing McCain will mention is the ‘vast military-industrial complex’...
My list of negatives against John McCain
Cap and Trade (or Carbon Taxes?)
Wage gap insurance
Andrew Cumo SEC chair
and now ‘Scrub defense spending’? (does he mean ‘scrub’ as in clean up?)
Scrub it...clean up defense procurements & contracts
that aren’t needed, wanted. See Boeing Air Tanker deal for a good example
Donald Rumsfeld tried to do the same thing. To many defense appropriations are based on some general’s pet project, or who’s congressional district gets the money.
Are you getting a check from the obama campaign to post this?
McCain will do anything to lose this election.
That giant sucking sound you just heard was the Florida sugar growers just taking their $$ out of McCain’s campaign...even in this era of Liberal Globalist Free Trade the sugar growers have prevented foreign dumping...and arent in the mood to stop.
Andrew Cuomo? Please. Just when I have applied the clothespin to my nose to vote for him, he says something so incredibly stupid that I can’t! I have to keep saying to myself, “Supreme Court, Supreme Court, Supreme Court.” That said, I agreed there is enough waste at the Pentagon to justify a scrub. All those add-ons to contracts that were supposed to be at a fixed price. We are getting too few bangs for our bucks, and the way the military rotates out of the services and onto the payrolls of defense contractors is a crime. Should be against the law. But, really, Andrew Cuomo, of all people.
The technical way military funding and application of funds is done is incredibly inefficient and downright stupid.
Obviously the Democrats want to cut spending to the Defense Dept to use it elsewhere, but a pro military person correcting the rampant redtape inside the military is MUCH needed.
I actually hope McCain is serious about shutting down the Government until reforms are passed for a lot of agencies. He will do some things that we don’t like, BUT I think he might be serious about pork spending and getting the budget disaster under control. That, energy and the WoT are the 3 big issues IMO.
If he will actually do something dramatic and let Palin take the lead....as in telling Congress NO budget until you do X and Y....it will be a good thing on average.
Yup. That is something you should plan to do but not announce ahead of time. The Fanjuls will be gunning for him now.
Andrew Cuomo, scrub military spending, move the RNC office out of the White House... there’s plenty of meat here for some reasoned questions.
Why Cuomo? Isn’t he a Democrat? Don’t we have an Conservatives that can handle the job?
What does scrub our military spending mean? Are more systems cuts on the way like under Bubba?
Last, is it at good thing to move the RNC out? While I have some serious problems with the RNC, this makes me think John intends to work so much hand in hand with the Democrats, that he doesn’t want the RNC privy to what he intends to do.
All this talk about doing away with traditional political ideological lines, causes me grave concern when it comes to someone like John McCain.
Andrew Cuomo is a corrupt Democrat crook. He was the worst head ever at HUD.
If McCain wants to save money, now about abolishing HUD?
I’m behind him on this. There are major excesses and waste going on. John McCain is not about to make any cuts that will hurt or weaken our military. At the same time, there are factions within the Pentagon — you think presidential politics is tough? You wouldn’t believe what the dueling generals are up to between the different services. Murderous politics for power and budget every single day — super frustrating, and it only hurts the taxpayer.
If cuts are done by a Republican that we can trust to do them right, it could strengthen our military and our country.
Fruad, the Yemeni scam artist?
wtf?
Even worse! He's a Cuoma.
“The next thing McCain will mention is the ‘vast military-industrial complex’...”
That line was originally coined by President Eisenhower, who was one of the great presidents when it came to national defense. He understood that the defense industry was full of lobbyist that were only concerned about lining their own pockets (and who willingly corrupted politicians to do so).
“and now ‘Scrub defense spending’? (does he mean ‘scrub’ as in clean up?)”
Like someone said earlier, there is a big difference between scub and scrap. McCain, having acted as liason between the Navy and Washington, probably has the best understanding of the military and how the system works of any president since Eisenhower.
Of all the things to jump on McCain, this isn’t one of them.
IMO, he meant Defense spending would be off table (scrub) as potential cuts.
“Fruad, the Yemeni scam artist?”
No, Dr. Sigmund Fraud, the Yemeni polygamist marriage psychologist and multi-family counselor.
IMHO, it's pretty well scrubbed hairless already. Oh there are always programs that could be scrapped, but then again there are others that should have their funding increased. I'd say there are more of the latter than of the former.
These remarks by McCain show some of his liberal side, more then his mavarick side.
The Cuomo thing is absurd, but cleaning up the defense expenditure mess is a good thing.
oh MAN are we screwed !!!!
Only if the cuts are to some programs, but with the funds freed up being applied to other programs. The budget is not all that large. It's about 20% of the total federal budget, or about 1/2 of the "discretionary budget. One has to look to the "non-discrentionary" parts of the budget if one wants to make any meaningful cuts. Even the "Bridge to Nowhere" pales in comparison to that budget black hole.
Scrub defense spending — I can go along with that and our family has been part of the Defense Department for well over 30 years.
He didn’t say scrap but he wants to scrub some of the waste. If he is serious, I can give him a bundle on what we see on a daily basis.
Small Example: Hiring the original prime contractor to do work that could be done by a smaller company who doesn’t charge as much. The original prime contractor will usually sub it out anyway but they take their cut which ads to the price. More competition will get Uncle Sam more bang for the buck.
He had no support from the Administration to do it and got undermined at the Defense Department and I am not a big Rumsfeld fan but it has to come from the President or the SecDef cannot get it done.
Were you trained by the NYTs to eliminate news that doesn’t suit your agenda?
No.
As far as I’m concerned, ‘scrub’ means either to eliminate something or to clean away debris. It’s safe to say McCain is not seeking to eliminate Defense spending.
PELLEY: Did I just hear you say you’re going to cut the Defense budget?
MCCAIN: I think there’s areas in Defense where we can save a lot of money in cost over runs.
I agree with McCain.
Is not artificially inflated sugar prices one of the reasons candy manufacturers are moving overseas?
Good job.
Cut off your nose to spite your face much?
Scrub defense spending?...STOP... YER GIVING BIN LADIN ORGASMS!!!
MCCAIN: “Look, if you were able to increase the budget and the size of government by 40 percent, don’t you think you could cut some of it?”
MCCAIN: I think we’ll frankly, you can eliminate so many agencies of government that are outmoded. Obviously I would scrub Defense spending. Obviously, we would look at every institution of government. I would stop these protectionist tariffs. I would stop subsidizing sugar.
PELLEY: Did I just hear you say you’re going to cut the Defense budget?
MCCAIN: I think there’s areas in Defense where we can save a lot of money in cost over runs.
Looks good to me.
Hey I’m ok with that. Someone needs to say no and get out the scissors!
It's always been that way. Even before the "Revolt of the Admirals" over what they saw as "excessive" funding of the newly created Air Force, the Army and the Navy (and Marines) were at each other all the time...well until the bullets started flying...mostly, but some even then, see MacArthur vs. Nimitz, and Admiral King verses pretty much everyone in the Army and Navy departments.
It's the nature of the beast, mostly the bureaucratic beast, and it goes on in the entire government, not just DoD. It goes on in Corporations too, although in slightly different form.
But it should not be used to gut the military budget, as it often is. That sort of thing can be reduced, but never eliminated. Each program manger sees not only his own future, but often, especially the uniformed PMs, sees their project as truly important to the national defense, and will do the best they can to keep it on track, and under their control, lest "those other guys" mess it up.
Many "cost overruns" are caused by a combination of over promising, mostly on schedules and often driven by artificial "need" dates. Since time is money, that then causes an overrun. That in turn drives up the program cost, which leads to lower quantities purchased, which in turn drives up the unit cost for two reasons. One the sunk R&D costs are spread over fewer units, and two, there is loss of economy of scale effects. Often programs are underfunded in their procurement lines, which stretches the buy out, but also leads to inefficient production rates, by a variant of economy of scale.
But there are also programs that should be scrapped after the proof of concept phase, which doesn't prove the concept out well enough, but which by the bureaucratic imperative, is kept going.
Also today, as opposed to the 50s and 60s, there seems to be less emphasis on pure research or exploratory development, and with most programs intended and structured to go clear to full scale production.
The Cuomo thing bothers me the most, what with all the stories about bad leadership at HUD. I think McCain is just talking about thinning out fat from Defense, which would be OK if done judiciously so as not to weaken our defense overall. I don’t understand why he is naming Cuomo, unless he figures the Dems wouldn’t throw him under the bus due to his party affiliation. Being the hyenas they are, though, they probably wouldn’t hesitate.
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