Posted on 03/08/2017 6:07:16 PM PST by mdittmar
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter sent today, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Gary Peters (D-MI), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) led a bipartisan group of 23 senators urging Office of Management and Budget Administrator Mick Mulvaney not to make a $1.3 billion dollar cut to the budget of the United States Coast Guard. According to reports, the FY 2018 Presidential Budget Request could amount to almost 12 percent of the service’s budget being cut.
President Trump has committed to stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the country, protecting our borders, investing in national security, and improving support for our armed service members and their families. The Senators note that the Coast Guard plays an outsized role in all three of these areas and that the Coast Guard budget should be increased rather than gutted.
(Excerpt) Read more at murray.senate.gov ...
A 12% cut is “gutting” the Coast Guard. The private sector companies “gutted” themselves again and again.
If those are the folks against it, it sounds like it must be a pretty good idea.
We need term limits
There. Fixed it.
The CG is part of “the wall” and needs to be beefed up too.
I find the Pavlovian responses from Potomac swamp creatures to be so predictable.
Don’t we need the Coast Guard?
I have no knowledge of the Coast Guard.
But I have seen DoD waste staggering amounts of money. Certainly, if a budget cuts comes through, the idiots who allocate funds might decide to cut all of the important stuff and really cripple all the missions. That seems like the thing they might do.
But, on the other hand, it may be the case that 12% of their budget is currently spent on excessive amounts of parsley in the officers’ mess. They COULD cut that sort of thing and really not feel any pain.
The question is: will they be smart?
Private industry has to be smart. We need to teach the government to be smart like industry.
When the border wall finally goes up, illegal alien smugglers will take to the shores to bring in illegal aliens. We need a strong Coast Guard (as well as a sentry presence on the border wall) to secure our borders.
They just said we did.
Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter calls Trump’s proposed cuts to Coast Guard budget ‘nonsensical’
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
After the terrestrial wall is built does anyone think the flow of illegals and drugs is just going to stop? Drives of life will find a way. The next path of lesser resistance is the West, East and Gulf coastal waters. Suddenly everyone will be scratching their heads. “Gee, I never thought that was going to happen!”
It takes 4 years to graduate Coast Guard Cadet officers. It takes about that long to fund and get more boats and ships built to man the patrols.
I hope there will be some chess-like thoughts considered before rash tic-tack-toe actions are taken.
That’s always the problem. They will cut things that are actually important instead of the 10,000 official coast guard screw driver budget just to make a point.
“The CG is part of “the wall” and needs to be beefed up too.”
i agree and cannot understand why President Trump would want to reduce the Coast Guard’s budget when he has been talking about ways to boost financial support for our military? isn’t the CG part of our uniformed armed forces tasked with protecting our coastline?
Bingo!!! All agencies of the federal government can absorb—indeed require—a reduction in manpower; next will be abolishment of all alphabet agencies—either that or bankruptcy, demise of the dollar, and total chaos.
You can cut at least 10% from positions not yet filed.
Ok Patty, offer President Trump something in return.
I never mention what I can or cannot do based on cost. If I did I would fire myself and spare my superiors. They expect me to maximize my contribution to the bottom line, not impose a roadblock in front of every idea or request. They expect me to recognize the difference between a good and bad idea without back pats or nose rubbing.
I spent most of my life, cruising around in sailboats and powerboats, up in Maine. I seldom or never had a good experience with the Coast Guard. If you saw one nearby, you had to be very careful, or they’d come over and fine you for not having the right kind of life preservers (although I always had more of them than people on board). Or they’d fine you for trailing tiny amounts of oil in the water. Or for “speeding” in the wrong place. Or they’d search your boat for drug smuggling, while the obvious smugglers chugged by untouched.
And if your boat broke down and you needed a tow or other help, you’d be crazy to call the Coast Guard. Better any day to get help from a lobsterman.
Sorry, we certainly need the Coast Guard, but frankly they seem more interested in drawing their generous taxpayer salaries and annoying as many people as possible to do anything very useful. No doubt there are exceptions.
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