Assuming that it does its job, the supercommittee on deficit reduction will issue recommendations within the next seven weeks about how to reduce the federal budget by $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
At the Take Back the American Dream conference Tuesday morning, Representative Barney Frank called for progressives to pressure the supercommittee to take nearly all of that money from military budgets. “The focus has got to be in the supercommittee $200 billion per year” in reductions, Frank said. That, of course, would be $2 trillion—more than the supercommittee’s mandate for deficit reduction.
That would be a tough sell to Republican members like Senator Jon Kyl, who has already threatened to just quit the supercommittee if it pushes deep military budget cuts. Kyl frequently cites jobs at military bases and industries that supply the military, instead of national security concerns, to advocate for protected defense spending—but Frank blasted the “military Keynesianism” of Republicans who oppose stimulus in virtually all other forms but defense.
“There is no way at all to do a socially responsible deficit reduction plan, no way to do long-term deficit reduction, no without very substantial reductions in military spending,” he said.
Frank has set the $200 billion annual reduction benchmark before, but if he continues this push in public, it will be significant—there has yet to be significant progressive pressure on the super-committee to focus on defense spending cuts.
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Seems to me there are 700 U.S. bases abroad, not 100. The days of "grand armies" are over, and we must demand not only base closures but also RIF's of military personnel! One way to ensure that is to lobby your elected reps to cut mil spending the full $200B and then some. We will no longer tolerate the fraud, waste and abuse to the tune of $800B per year while all other segments of our society go begging! Our killing and bombing adventures a la George Bush are over and funding MUST be reduced accordingly. Supercommittee, heed our words or be put out to pasture in your next election!
The 2000 U.S. military coup has yet to be addressed by either Congress or the media and, most curiously, by the people. Eliminate the Pentagon, indict Scalia, and his supporters, destroy all the medals, all the fancy bric a brac, all statues, tributes, retirements, housing and all benefits to the entire military and make a stand that we will never again post armed soldiers on foreign soil. Obama will do nothing.
Cut Barney Franks salary now.....as punishment for praising and ignoring Fannie and Freddie as they caused the housing collapse.
And while you are cutting ...cut Maxine Waters.
Kick Senator Kyl's ass off the super committee. The one place we really should make cuts is in defense spending. We could cut our spending by a third and still outspend any nation on the planet by a significant amount. Is our military really so bad that we have to outspend our adversaries by that much? I don't think so. No, this is businessmen getting their cut while the gettin is good and it's damn good for them right now. Cut their damned gravy train they've riding since the end of WWII already.
A month or two ago, Rachel Maddow had on two different "reporters" from the NYT, and both of them said that SS/Medicare/Medicade/entitlements spending had to be brought under control to reduce the budget. Neither of them mentioned the war budget at all. Goes to show how deeply ingrained support for the military-industrial complex is, although of course it is hard to get more establishment than the NYT.
Barney Frank is only calling for military cuts for election purposes. He must be afraid that Obama will bring the Democratic Party to defeat. Obama is going to run as strong on defense. Therefore, the military will see no cuts.
Frank is just blowing hot air.
Barney Frank is correct, and the cuts can come without having any impact on jobs in America. How? By closing or reducing the size of many of the more than 100 US military bases around the world.
Grand armies and massive naval and air force fleets can be moved anywhere in a matter of days. This isn't 1947 anymore when the US faced off against a Soviet force across a barbed wire fence, and if the US left there was a risk the USSR would march freely into Western Europe.
Moreover, moving personnel back to the States would actually increase employment around bases as additional civilians would be hired to meet the requirements of basing a large military presence. And no, I'm not talking about Blackwater security details but actual people doing real work.
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Military weapons have all become Edsels. We are using the same combat weapon from Vietnam(M-16), the same APCs, helicopters,C131 aircraft, etc. and the weapons developed over the last 40 years are considered too expensive, too fragile or just not good enough for the mission. Let's get real!
Think the F-35 will cost 1 TRILLION Dollars over its life. Because of cost they are now thinking of dropping the versions for the Marines and Navy. This a weapon competing with the last American plane, not enemy. Stop the madness!