Rand Paul: GOP must consider military spending cuts

[RamboLiberal]

Government spending is sure to be one of the biggest targets now that Republicans have won back the House, but there have been few details on exactly what programs will see their budgets slashed.

Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-KY) probably surprised some Republicans Sunday when he said he would be willing to cut military spending.

"Yes, yes," Paul responded when asked if he would vote for defense cuts. In doing so, he highlighted the libertarian streak among some of the candidates propelled to office by the tea party movement. Like his father, Ron Paul, Rand Paul is considered to be at the libertarian end of the GOP's political spectrum, and libertarians have long been calling for a scaling back of US military ambitions.

In that respect, the new Congress could see some infighting among traditional Republican war-hawks and those seeking to do battle with the deficit.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/rand-paul-gop-military-spending-cuts/

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[Ikonoklast]

12. And easier to fit under the bus than a human.

Paul won't find many friends on the right to agree with him.

[tridim]

2. Had any of the other teabaggers won, they would not agree with Paul.

I don't think he's going to be welcome in the GOP smoke filled rooms, from day one.

[Quixote1818]

3. At least he is consistent. nt

[calimary]

4. Uh-oh...

:rofl:

Bet nobody voting for him expected this. Wait til they hear his libertarian take on the war on drugs!

Can you say "Baggers' Buyers' Remorse"?

:headbang: :fistbump: :thumbsup: :woohoo: :evilgrin: :applause: :patriot: :toast: :rofl:

[tishaLA]

19. That was something of an issue in his Sen campaign IIRC

Conway, as AG, has been really tough on drug laws and he criticized Paul pretty consistently on his libertarian approach to drugs. You're right though: the republicons are going to hate him if he says anything against their "war on drugs"

[calimary]

29. I'd venture to say nobody paid much attention.

They were all caught up in the moment and in their own bellybuttons. And they allowed themselves to become drunk with the whole fantasy about NO TAXES!!!! WOW!!! Let's vote him in and we won't have to pay taxes anymore!!!!! YAY Libertarianism!!!!!! They probably fixated on the No Taxes thing and dismissed everything else, considering the mentality we're dealing with. These people will take delivery on NOTHING but what they want to hear. Anything else simply doesn't register - until it's way too late, and the guy is in, and nothing much is done about cutting their taxes (watch the big wake-up call next April 15th when their tax bills still come and "OMG!!!! Nothing's been done!!!!!!" Because deep down I think these "Night of the Living Brain-Dead" voters expect magic to happen and Immediately If Not Sooner! And because they got their guy in there, well, he's supposed to make that magic happen, and This Instant!!! I guess, in this regard anyway, you might consider him their version of Barack Obama. rand paul won't be able to make those numb-nuts' dreams come instantly true any more than Obama has been able to. One thing these poor pathetic souls have been sold, and swallowed whole, is the idea of instant fix. Vote for me and all your problems will go away.

It's HUMAN NATURE!!!! Especially in our society where we've been trained forever that everything wraps up neatly in a half-hour when Desi pulled Lucy's ass out of a jam or the "Scrubs" guys figured something out, or an hour (because that's when the hero gets the bad guy whether it's on "Gunsmoke" or "Law and Order" or "NCIS"). We've been trained that you go to the drug store and take a pill and bye-bye back ache. Many of us don't wait around the kitchen for food to be slowly and deliciously cooked, we drive through the drive-thru quick-n-easy, and more often than not if we even are cooking at home, the mashed potatoes come from a box, ready in 30 seconds rather than slow-boiling for a long time. How many people have instant microwave oatmeal in their kitchens instead of the kind you have to cook in a pot for far longer? Ever since MTV we've been trained that everything is quick-cut, fast and furious, and politics morphed a lot of that into bumper-sticker sloganeering, where you're lost if your campaign manifesto doesn't fit on a matchbook cover. Everything is shorthand now. Just look at texting and twittering. We don't even take the time to spell full words anymore.

NOBODY wants to work at it for a long time, or work toward conclusions that may be years or decades off in the future. We want it NOW. That's probably why the space program is on life support. No quick payoffs. The rocket with the Saturn or Neptune probe that blasts off this afternoon won't reach its destination for one or two thousand afternoons in the future. Who wants to wait that long when instant gratification is so much more satisfying? rand paul's disciples will deep-down be as disillusioned with him as many Dems have become with Barack Obama.

And sometimes people want to hear WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR so badly that everything else just gets drowned out. Like reality. Like track record. Like facts and statistics. Who cares? I like the sound of this guy! He's gonna go give 'em hell and git 'er done! And I suspect the rand paul people put EVERYTHING that Conway said on IGNORE. Nothing he said, or could have said, was gonna get through with some of these people.

To paraphrase Neil Sedaka, "WAKING Up is Hard to Do."
Yeah... suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

[Bill McBlueState]

5. If you want to reduce the federal budget,

that's an excellent place to start. It's good that one of the 300 Republicans in Congress has noticed this.

[calimary]

6. That's a SUPERB place to start! That's the first place I'd look to make cuts if I were

on the way into Congress. That's the only place sufficiently bloated where you can cut enough to make any difference (because I'd leave Social Security and Medicare OFF the table).

Oh I am loving this! Be careful what you wish for, GOP! Be careful what you wish for, teabaggers! You thought he was your Prince Valiant. He may actually turn out to be your very own Frankenstein's monster.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, that does it, then. I'm converting to the Libertarian Party.

:sarcasm:

I'm looking forward to my new career as a Linux consultant. :rofl:

[Merlot]

33. "Linux consultant"

Perfect career choice!

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. GOP Floor Fight!!

:woohoo:

:rofl:

[calimary]

13. More like a food fight, probably.

Wouldn't surprise me if we eventually see fisticuffs break out on the House floor between some of these self-entitled hotheads - like we see in Youtube clips from the parliaments of some third-world nations. But then again, that's where these assholes seem determined to take us as a nation: straight into Third World status.

Please pass the popcorn (and I may even need a big bag of M&Ms while I'm at it)!

[Parker CA]

9. That would be a very solid first step to decreasing the deficit.

[DirkGently]

10. Not sure if it qualifies as a silver lining, but should be interesting seeing the GOP react.

[DearAbby]

11. Oh this should be good...

:popcorn:

[patrice]

14. Ding, Ding, Ding! NO BIG CONCESSION HERE! That shite!! has been in the works for quite some time now

They've been getting ready for this for a few years now, so this is NO concession on the RepubliBagggers side, especially since DOE budgets for nuclear weapons will likely not be cut, since they're separate from the Military, and around here, with the BIG push for smaller more USABLE, Tactical, nuclear weapons, it appears, indeed, that there may be an increase in nuclear weapons' budgets.

Moral of this story: Q. Fuck up your Military, wear them out, screw them over in a WAR OF CHOICE, get a lot of them killed for nothing, use them up and mess them over for the forseeable future and what is your only recourse???? A. Small nukes in automated "theater" war, which just happen also to be much less expensive.

SO THIS BRIGHT AND SHINY DEFENSE CUT STUFF IS JUST ANOTHER DISTRACTION FROM WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON.

[Cosmocat]

16. And, when Paul says cutting military spending, WHAT is he saying?

Benefits for the vets ...

[patrice]

18. Absolutely! Look at all of that privatization that's been going on in the Military, do you think

they'll cut there.

LOOK THIS FRAKKING 'GIFT' HORSE IN THE MOUTH - SEVERAL TIMES OVER!!!

. . . and even then don't turn your back on it!!!

[tishaLA]

20. Oh, he was crowing about the benefit of further privatization this AM too

he didn't specify the VA, but you know he meant it. He also thinks gov employees need to take a 10% pay cut, but not members of the military...probably because he figures he can get that 10% (at least) by cutting benefits.

[patrice]

22. Privatization also fits what they're doing with the nuclear weapons' redesign.

Soldiers, you can always just order into Harm's way.

Contractors, you can't, the costs will go up if you get too many of them killed, so what do you do? Provide them, initially through military support, a means by which war can be "automated", so even if it doesn't work so well at first, you can assure everyone that someday you'll be able to make war efficiently from a distance.

[Cosmocat]

31. Dude ...

you know it, these scumbags do NOTHING unless it is turning a buck for someone on their side ... That is a rock solid, no breaking from, rule when you start to figure out what they are saying ...

[mwooldri]

15. Well that is something Rand Paul and I agree upon.

A "military spending review" with some actions to be taken is a good start.

My problem is that I fear a military spending review with cuts would lead to drastic job losses and I don't know where the resources are to absorb the job losses.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Well he is consistent

so does his dad

[leftstreet]

21. And I bet Raynd wants to give the billions saved to poverty programs, right?

Oh wait....

[Obamanaut]

23. There are more than 700 military sites in 30+ countries. These sites

are of various size, some of the military have their families with them, others do not accomodate families.

Close all those sites. Immediate saving of the money spent leasing the sites. Immediate saving of the payroll for the local civilian workers who are employed at those sites.

Bring the military personnel and the families home, spread them about the US in bases that have been downsized. Immediate boost to local economies.

Gradually reduce the overall size of the military via reduced recruiting efforts and normal attrition as enlistments expire.

Stop being policemen to the world.

And oh, stopping the two wars would save a butt load of money, as well as lives and limbs.

[patrice]

24. Right on!

Is there a website?

[Terry in Austin]

28. The empire business

Being in the empire business just gets too damned expensive after a certain point, as every other empire before us has discovered -- usually the hard way.

The US has certainly reached that point, and is struggling with it in spite of not yet admitting it.

Uncle Sam, get yourself into rehab!

[ProSense]

25. It's the new GOP talking point

Coburn Boldly Calls For Cutting Pentagon’s ‘Sacred Cows’: ‘Taking Defense Spending Off The Table Is Indefensible’

Started before the election.

Corker Says Defense Cuts Have To Be ‘On The Table,’ Because ‘There’s A Lot Of Waste There’

Paul also said he wanted to cut entitlements

[patrice]

26. They need to factor in costs for how DESTABILISING smaller nuclear weapons are geopolitically.

[BolivarianHero]

30. Wow..Coburn said something vaguely intelligent...

Never expected that from the guy who compared Schindler's List to pornography.

[annabanana]

27. Rand Paul is going to be fun to watch...

He is the very definition of a loose cannon.

[Odin2005]

32. Wow!

:wow:

[Major Hogwash]

34. Rand Paul: Men should do more housecleaning

Yeah, right, since you're asking for the impossible, why not go all the fricking way, Mr Opthalmologist-certified-by-your-own-board-of-directors-of-your-own-company-jackass!!