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To: Owen
You do realize that fully 1/2 of the Sequester is not DoD? It’s cuts to discretionary social programs. Why don’t you want this to proceed?

Believe me. If we could cleanly cut just those programs, I would do a dance. Unfortunately, our "brilliant" GOP signed off on this Faustian bargain known as the "2011 Budget Control Act" that punished Defense to a much greater degree. Paul Ryan and John Boehner could have said "no" to the formula. As it stands, the DoD takes 50% of the cuts, yet it is 17% of the budget. Worse still, almost all entitlement spending was completely exempt, and still is.

Defense is a Constitutional enterprise. You and I are smart enough to know that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Housing and Urban Development, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Section 8 Housing, and every other Federal giveaway program is not Constitutional.

But here we are. Facing this massive problem, with 3 weeks to go.

The Republicans can't just stand by and watch at least 1 million jobs (some projections are actually for 2 million jobs) disappear and Defense get gutted and declare "victory." Someone needs to wake the GOP up.

29 posted on 02/05/2013 12:33:20 PM PST by SkyPilot
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To: SkyPilot

“The Republicans can’t just stand by and watch at least 1 million jobs (some projections are actually for 2 million jobs) disappear and Defense get gutted and declare “victory.” Someone needs to wake the GOP up.”

Why do you keep using the bureaucrat-speak referring to “gutting” when it is over 10 years?

The taxpayer can’t tell the difference between a dollar spent on defense or a dollar spent on other things. We don’t have the money.

The 1,000,000 (or as you say possibly 2,000,00) job figure doesn’t pass the smell test - because it’s BS.

using a macroeconomic rule-of-thumb, $1B corresponds roughly to 7,000 jobs. $42B (the actual size of the “cut”) will be approximately 294,000 jobs.

However, those 294,000 people will not all sit idle. Some will find other gainful private sector employment, growing our tax base.

So where did you pull the 2,000,000 job figure from? your posterior orifice?

It’s simply not that big a cut. It is not significant in a $500B defense budget.

The screaming you hear are bureaucrats losing budget authority.

This is hysterics. If $42B is “gutting” the defense budget than what good does the rest of the $500B we are spending do? Will it do ANYTHING to help our National Defense?

Let’s let all the supposed “cuts” happen, including DoD.


30 posted on 02/05/2013 12:50:21 PM PST by RFEngineer
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To: SkyPilot

Are you stuck in a Keynsian mind warp? If you know of a way to reduce government spending and not have some people lose their jobs please let’s hear about it now.

Otherwise, accept the bigger picture that the government sector can’t keep deficit spending at over $1 Trillion per year.


34 posted on 02/05/2013 2:36:49 PM PST by Helotes
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To: SkyPilot

Nope. Not signing onto this.

You have to cut. You have to cut big. Frankly, in the Continuing Resolution upcoming for March 27, a conservative must want to see even MORE cuts, added to, not replacing, the Sequester, and to get them passed DoD will have to eat some of those as well.

Government must get smaller. The number one threat to the USA is not military; it is fiscal. These cuts must happen and DoD will not be immune. Most particularly civil service pensions must not be immune — including Congressional pensions.


42 posted on 02/05/2013 5:44:35 PM PST by Owen
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