Posted on 11/07/2010 2:06:31 PM PST by fabrizio
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen.-elect Rand Paul says GOP lawmakers must be open to cutting military spending as Congress tries to reduce government spending.
The tea party favorite from Kentucky says compromise with Democrats over where to cut spending must include the military as well as social programs. Paul says all government spending must be “on the table.”
Paul tells ABC’s “This Week” that he supports a constitutional amendment calling for a balanced budget.
The problem is, cutting perks and salaries wont make a bit of a dent in the budget.
Lets say we cut $100,000 of salaries/perks from every Congressman and Senator, and lets say they have 20 staffers, to be liberal (get the biggest number to cut).
535 Congressmen with 20 staffers equals 11,235 employees just in the two chambers. If we cut $100,000 from each of those people, we would cut 1.13 billion dollars which is .032% of the total budget. IT would be symbolic, but fiscally, it would be unimportant.
Whether we are broke or not the current threats and rising threats are not going to cut us any slack because of Obama spending.
We have a looming national defense problem. I am NOT advocating willy-nilly international intervention just because the MSM puts some sad scenes on TV. We need to be able to swing a hard stick when it is in our interests to do so and not be ashamed to do so. Of course you have to have a stick to swing so we need sufficient conventional forces to do that.
Do you think all the world's conflicts are caused by a US presence or by US actions like leftists and Ron Paul think?
They are people and “isms” that hate simply because we exist! It wouldn't matter if we hide behind some impermeable wall they would still want to kill us and would try and succeed if we are not vigilant.
Many libertarians advocate a return to a mythical isolationist age where we would prosper like we did in the late 18th to early 20th century. If they actually go back and read the history they would see that the US engaged in world trade from the beginning of it's existence, and when necessity and the capability existed we did express military power sometimes on a shoestring to protect that trade e.g., Eaton& O’Bannon and the “shores of Tripoli”!, Perry in Japan, and a little know military intervention in 1867 into Korea, there are other examples! Most of the time it wasn't necessary because we got the benefit of the British Empire's desire to keep the lanes of international trade open. Unfortunately there is no other power left other then us to do this. All benefit from world trade though all do not benefit equally nor concurrently. (No I am not mindlessly for “free trade”. Its best for all but rarely is it practiced and we need to capable reacting in kind when we see such behavior "anti-free trade behavior".)
the US Government must consider how to cut money from its bloated budget
1. cut the salaries of all politicians by 100,000.00.
2 cut the number of federal employess by 50%.
3. put Obummer on a budget, if he exceeds his budget he has to pay it out of his own pocketbook.
4. end ObummerCare
5. end the stimulus that is unspent.
6. imprison all Dumbocratis politicians and place them in a cold place and let them freeze their genitals off.
seize all the assets of Dumbocratic politicians Reid, Pelosi Kerry and et al
7. close the government for 6 months the national debt is resolved and the do nothings in DC can do nothing.
Signed
We The People
I have no doubt there is plenty of money to be saved over at the Pentagon.
That said, there are a number of other Federal Agencies, and pseudo-agencies (headed by all of those Czars) that I want to see disassembled long before we go after the Pentagon.
the very last thing to cut now.
Exactly. If the government overspends on frivolity elsewhere, why do we think they wouldn’t in the defense budget?
What situation is that?
Sending our heroic best to get killed or wounded for nothing?
THAT situation?
How many empires have died in Afghanistan? I know, this time it’s different.
Depends what it is he wants to cut in the money allocated to the military. The military is a government organization so I’m sure there are some programs that could get cut that are unneccessary but what they are and how much that would
really save I don’t know.
I knew when I supported him he was Ron Paul’s son and I know his father is ridiculous on the war. I trust Republicans overall aren’t going to embrace gutting the military so that doesn’t matter.
The DoD is as good as it gets in government spending. Yes, there is waste - but NO government program will ever be run without waste. Nor is there any way to identify the waste. Is the spending on UAVs a good investment in the future, or a waste of money? How many men do we need in the Army, and what spending will keep those levels?
Those are judgment calls, and no one has perfect judgment. Nor can we use competition & have multiple militaries competing with each other.
I worked at 12th AF before I retired. I thought it totally useless, but I doubt everyone else agrees.
Also, the military is almost trivial in government spending. If you totally eliminated the military, our deficit would still be higher than it was under GWB! The REAL money lies in entitlements. Without cutting those, no significant cuts will happen.
Another guy that I think believes this is good old John Kucinich ( now gov elect of Ohio).
The one organization we need to keep strong is the military.
Before they go after the active forces,though, they will go after the benefits of the retired community. They “value” the military guys..all the whoopin and back slappin and the ya done good when they come back from in theater and they go on about taking care of our service “heroes” but when it comes right down to it, the govt doesn’t give a flying fig if cutting a military benefit will be of value to some gov do gooder program for social welfare.
“We don’t need to pay for married junior NCOs with children, and we don’t need for them to travel to other countries. Sad facts of life.”
You don’t know much about the military or the all volunteer system, do you...
We are at war and are spending les than 5% of GDP on the military. Are there mismanaged programs and wasteful spending? You bet. But massive cuts would be wrong.
The Defense budget is 663 billion, or 1/5 of the entire federal government. That is hardly trivial.
There are 4 million Federal employees. If their average salary was 100,000 and we fired every single one of them, we would cut 400 billion, which is only 2/3 of the defense budget. The three monsters (20% of the budget) are defense, medicare/caid, and social security. If you add in debt interest, those four payments would equal 70% of the budget. Those are the four things that have to be looked at first if you actually want to reduce government spending.
You have valid points, and I agree that all the money is in entitlements. I believe the cuts Rand has in mind are meant to be symbolic. They will make going after things like entitlements a little more palatable imo. Sorry wasn’t trying to be snarky with my original post.
Cut everything including the military
It appears as if Paul shares his fathers sentiments on foreign policy and military cuts.
Military pensions are astronomical? excuse me..but my husband worked for poverty wages as an enlisted man. He could have made alot more in the private sector. He worked his way up and stayed in for 24 yrs. You are telling me that someone that did 3 tours in Korea and 2 in Vietnam...lost 1/3rd of his stomach, his hearing in his right ear, his right kidney and part of his left lung AND never asked for one dime of welfare or disability gets too much on his retirement? and his medical bills are costing too much? go sit on a damn tack.
It is the civillian contractors and civillian workforce that needs to be cut. Not the soldier, sailor or airmen. Their wages are low and they are the ones that put their lives on the line. If Rand Paul is like his father...he is an isolationist.
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