Odd Couple: Frank And Paul Target Military Spending

[lfairban]

July 10, 2010
Governments around the country are feeling the strain of budget pressures, and in Washington, at least, that strain is producing some strange alliances. Take Congressmen Ron Paul and Barney Frank: The libertarian Republican and the liberal Democrat co-wrote a piece for Huffington Post this past week that takes aim at a longtime budgetary sacred cow: U.S. military spending.

The unlikely pair want to trim the Pentagon's budget by $1 trillion over the next 10 years, significantly reducing U.S. military presence around the world, including Europe. Frank tells NPR's Lynn Neary that it's time the nation updated its military approach.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128434888&ft=1&f=1014

[laughingliberal]

1. K & R nt

[Lasher]

2. Is this supposed to be radical? $100 billion a year?

What a joke. US military spending doubled during the Bush years. How about we immediately cut annual military spending by at least $350 billion, just for a start?

[Ozymanithrax]

3. It is a good approach. Deeper cuts would cause too many states

to lose spending, that supplements the state funds. Military bases and personnel put a lot of money into state coffers and supply a lot of jobs. We need to wean the military industrial complex off government funding rather than starve them to death, because they employ a lot of Americans.

100 billion a year, ultimately, won't be enough. But it is a start in the right place.

[L0oniX]

4. The Russians laugh at us. "Defense spending was set to total $45 billion by 2010"

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/mo-budget.htm

This idiot country is spending its way into hell.
:mad:

[johnaries]

5. Oh, the Teabaggers are gonna love this!

"Ok, maybe you're right and we need to cut the deficit. Let's start with the biggest - Defense Spending."

I can't wait to see their faces!

[SharonAnn]

7. It's not "Defense Spending". It's Military Spending. Much of it has nothing to do with defense

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. Military spending. The elephant in the room.....

very few want to talk about. Then again, I understand why. We have been put in the position that about 50% of our jobs are related to military spending.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Unlikely pair? Progressives agree with libs on some issues, notably

the war(s), legalizing marijuana, and auditing the Fed.

Not much more, but credit where credit is due - this is NOT an unlikely pairing on this topic.