Rummy tried to cut the size of the National Guard just a few months ago and Congress slapped him down.
If Congress didn't do that we would have had 0 National Guard troops to put on the border.
Having been a member of the National Guard since 1999, I can assure you there is plenty of room for reductions in the National Guard. In some cases the National Guard has become little more than a welfare program for some of its participants. Even in deployable units, there are members who will find a hundred different excuses to never deploy. And they don't. They show up just long enough to bitch, and pick up a paycheck. The National Guard has PLENTY of room to first redistribute it resources, and then trim off the excess.
Hmm. You're actually making Rummy more appealing.
I'd much rather there be more border patrol agents placed on the border, than disarmed Guardsmen sent there as a temporary election-year publicity stunt. But maybe that's just me.