IOWA 2012: Barbour: "Cut defense spending." Pawlenty: "Aw, hell naah!"

[MRoCkEd]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51378.html
Haley Barbour:

"Anybody who says you can't save money at the Pentagon has never been to the Pentagon," the Mississippi governor said. "We can save money on defense and if we Republicans don't propose saving money on defense, we'll have no credibility on anything else."

"What is our mission?" Barbour said. "How many Al Qaeda are in Afghanistan. ... Is that a 100,000-man Army mission?"

"I don't think our mission should be to think we're going to make Afghanistan an Ireland or an Italy" or a Western-style democracy, he said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51430.html
Tim Pawlenty:

"I don't think we should be talking about cutting the Pentagon's budget," the former Minnesota governor told POLITICO after a speech at the Aiken Republican Club here. "I think we should be talking about looking for those areas where we might some efficiencies or redeploying money spent on defense to higher-priority areas within defense. In other words keep the defense budget intact, but if we find some savings, some efficiencies, some ways to redeploy money we should do that."

[trey4sports]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51378.html
Haley Barbour:

"Anybody who says you can't save money at the Pentagon has never been to the Pentagon," the Mississippi governor said. "We can save money on defense and if we Republicans don't propose saving money on defense, we'll have no credibility on anything else."

"What is our mission?" Barbour said. "How many Al Qaeda are in Afghanistan. ... Is that a 100,000-man Army mission?"

"I don't think our mission should be to think we're going to make Afghanistan an Ireland or an Italy" or a Western-style democracy, he said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51430.html
Tim Pawlenty:

"I don't think we should be talking about cutting the Pentagon's budget," the former Minnesota governor told POLITICO after a speech at the Aiken Republican Club here. "I think we should be talking about looking for those areas where we might some efficiencies or redeploying money spent on defense to higher-priority areas within defense. In other words keep the defense budget intact, but if we find some savings, some efficiencies, some ways to redeploy money we should do that."

Haley is setting himself up to be a Ron Paul 2012 Veep candidate :collins:

[Traditional Conservative]

Barbour and Trump both sound good on foreign policy issues. I hope they both decide to run and add non interventionist views to the debates.

[Stary Hickory]

The bureaucracy extends into all areas of government....including the military. There is a whole maze of organizations and agencies attached to the military. The armed forces themselves are not as bad(though its there too) but the supporting organizations is where the real growth has occurred.

[gls]

Barbour and Trump both sound good on foreign policy issues.

So did George W. Bush in 2000 and Obama in 2008.

[Matt Collins]

[Matt Collins]

So did George W. Bush in 2000 and Obama in 2008.

[Stary Hickory]

Hey Barbour sounds ok, we have to look at cutting the ENTIRE government or else there will never be anything cut. Eventually cuts will come whether they are forced or voluntary however.

[malkusm]

"We must not let our party be torn apart by purity." -Haley Barbour, April 2010

[Traditional Conservative]

Unfortunately, the GOP candidates with the best chance to win right now are the neo-cons. I thought Huckabee was starting to come around with his criticism of the war in Afghanistan, but he basically wants to withdraw from Afghanistan and start a war in Libya.