Monday, November 03, 2008
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank
Here, I agree with the writer. There are many things I can do without, but a strong national defense is NOT one of them...
Here's the story by Stuart Koehl at WeeklyStandard.com:
"One reason nobody takes Democrats seriously on matters of national security are statements like those of Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to the effect that he wants to cut the Defense budget by a mind-numbing 25 percent in order to reduce the deficit and to pay for programs he and his Democratic colleagues hold near and dear to their hearts. Aside for the questionable wisdom of cutting the defense budget at all when more than 200,000 American troops are deployed in combat zones around the world, Frank's proposal suggests that the man, for all his years in Congress dealing with budgetary matters, simply does not understand the military or how the country pays for it. Because any halfway informed person, hearing Frank's proposal, would realize that it is not physically or fiscally possible to do what he wants.
'Why?' one might ask. After all, we will spend some $650 billion on the Department of Defense next year. Surely, it should be possible to eliminate a measly $162 billion, just by cutting 'waste, fraud and mismanagement.' In fact, the Defense Department is actually quite well managed as compared to some of Barney Frank's more favored government bureaucracies, like the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or the Department of Health and Human Services. If all the inefficiency and corruption were squeezed out of the Defense Department, I doubt that one could save more than $20-30 billion. So when Frank calls for cuts, he means real cuts. So let's look at how that would have to be done."
