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Thread: Massie, Amash join bipartisan group in calling for cuts to Pentagon

  1. #1

    Massie, Amash join bipartisan group in calling for cuts to Pentagon

    Letter sent to the President and Congressional leaders:

    December 10, 2012

    The Honorable Barack Obama
    The Honorable John Boehner
    The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
    The Honorable Harry Reid
    The Honorable Mitch McConnell

    Dear President Obama and Congressional Leaders,

    As you begin negotiations to improve our nation's fiscal health, we write to express bipartisan support for including defense savings in any final budget agreement. We have serious concerns about the careless and arbitrary way that sequestration reduces defense spending, but we support its general intent to improve our fiscal condition. We believe that substantial defense savings can be achieved over the long-term, without compromising national security, through strategic reductions in the Pentagon's budget.

    Respected policy organizations across the political spectrum have recently issued proposals that would responsibly achieve defense savings over the next decade. The Cato Institute, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the National Taxpayer's Union, the Project on Defense Alternatives and others have released plans to save up to $550 billion without harming U.S. national security.

    In fact, achieving defense savings as part of the larger effort to reduce the national debt will go a long way toward bolstering U.S. national security. As former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen pointed out, "The single biggest threat to our national security is our debt, so I also believe we have every responsibility to help eliminate that threat. We must, and will, do our part."

    The Pentagon's budget has increased dramatically over the last decade, due in large part to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As we transition from wartime to peacetime, and as we confront our nation's fiscal challenges, future defense budgets should reflect the conclusion of those wars and acknowledge that our modern military is able to approach conflicts utilizing fewer - but more advanced - resources. Congress must consider these changes, not past spending or percentages of GDP, and more toward defense budgeting that focuses on meeting specific military requirements.

    We know the United States can maintain the best fighting force in the world while also pursuing sensible defense savings. How we spend our resources is just as important as how much we spend. The true foundation of our military power is not dollars or equipment, but the men and women of our armed forces, who have no equal.

    As you work toward a budget agreement to address our fiscal challenges, we urge you to include substantial defense savings.

    Sincerely,
    Republicans
    Mick Mulvaney
    Tom McClintock
    Morgan Griffith
    Justin Amash
    Raúl Labrador
    Timothy Johnson
    Chris Gibson
    Reid Ribble
    Thomas Massie
    Dan Benishek
    Scott Garrett

    Democrats
    Keith Ellison
    Barbara Lee
    Michael Honda
    Jared Polis
    James Moran
    Barney Frank
    Jerrold Nadler
    Kurt Schrader
    Edward Markey
    Gwen Moore
    Lynn Woolsey



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  3. #2
    Didn't Walter Jones sign those when Ron was still in? Or am I misremembering?
    "Integrity means having to say things that people don't want to hear & especially to say things that the regime doesn't want to hear.” -Ron Paul

    "Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we've been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it." -Edward Snowden

  4. #3
    wonder what their scorecards look like?
    I finally have a list of good house republicans:
    Mick Mulvaney
    Tom McClintock
    Morgan Griffith
    Justin Amash
    Raúl Labrador
    Timothy Johnson
    Chris Gibson
    Reid Ribble
    Thomas Massie
    Dan Benishek
    Scott Garrett
    rewritten history with armies of their crooks - invented memories, did burn all the books... Mark Knopfler

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by sailingaway View Post
    Didn't Walter Jones sign those when Ron was still in? Or am I misremembering?
    Yea but maybe they couldn't find him when this letter was being passed around. I'm sure there's a lot more than 22 members who would sign this letter.

  6. #5

    Bipartisan letter calls for defense cuts

    11 Republicans and 11 Democrats have wrote a letter to the President and Congressional leaders calling for defense cuts.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/116298735/...etter-12-10-12

    Republican's signing:

    Mick Mulvaney
    Tom McClintock
    Morgan Griffith
    Justin Amash
    Raul Labrador
    Timothy Johnson
    Chris Gibson
    Reid Ribble
    Thomas Massie
    Dan Benishek
    Scott Garrett

  7. #6

  8. #7

    Amash and Massie Among 22 House Reps Calling for Defense Cuts

    http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill...e-defense-cuts

    Right, left call for defense cuts
    By Jeremy Herb - 12/10/12 03:26 PM ET
    Tweet

    Fiscal conservatives and liberal Democrats are calling on party leaders to include “substantial defense savings” in a deficit-reduction deal.

    A group of 22 House lawmakers — 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans — sent a letter Monday to President Obama and House and Senate leaders calling for cuts to defense spending to be part of a deal to replace scheduled spending cuts and tax hikes set for January.

    Republican hawks have warned of the danger of further cuts to defense spending — particularly the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration — arguing that the Pentagon is already cutting $487 billion from its budgets in the 2011 Budget Control Act.

    The lawmakers calling for defense cuts say that the manner of sequestration is not desirable, but argue that the overall level of cuts is achievable.

    They point to studies from the Cato Institute, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the National Taxpayers Union and the Project on Defense Alternatives that have identified $500 billion or more in cuts.

    “We have serious concerns about the careless and arbitrary way that sequestration reduces defense spending, but we support its general intent to improve our fiscal condition,” the lawmakers write.

    “We know the United States can maintain the best fighting force in the world while also pursuing sensible defense savings.”

    The letter includes Republican Reps. Mick Mulvaney (S.C.), Tom McClintock (Calif.) and Justin Amash (Mich.), who was kicked off the Budget Committee last week for not holding the GOP line.

    The Democrats on the letter include Reps. Barney Frank (Mass.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Keith Ellison (Minn.) and Barbara Lee (Calif.).

    Conservatives and liberals in the House have joined together before to push for a smaller defense budget: the two coalitions helped pass an amendment to the defense authorization bill in May at the tail end of the House floor debate that cut $1 billion off the top of the Pentagon budget.

    The possibility of further defense cuts has played only a minor role in the negotiations on the "fiscal cliff" thus far.

    Republican hawks and defense industry CEOs have admitted that some additional defense cuts could be coming in a fiscal-cliff deal, although they have argued that the number should be far less than $500 billion over the next decade.

    Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) proposal last week included $300 billion in discretionary spending cuts over the next decade. The offer did not say what percentage of those cuts might hit the Pentagon budget.

    (Link to letter sent to leadership with the names of those who signed it): http://www.scribd.com/doc/116298735/...etter-12-10-12
    Last edited by JasonC; 12-10-2012 at 11:45 PM.
    "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
    - Jimi Hendrix

    "If one rejects laissez faire on account of mans fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action."
    - Ludwig Von Mises, Planning for Freedom

  9. #8
    I'm wondering how serious they are about this, specifically the Democrats. These 22 Congressmen could probably swing the balance. If they demand defense cuts and are hardliners on that point, then there will probably be defense cuts. I am pessimistic, however, since it seems as if nothing ever actually gets cut, and especially a sacred cow such as the military.



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  11. #9
    I hate when they say "defense cuts". Rand refers to it as cuts to the Pentagon.
    ================
    Open Borders: A Libertarian Reappraisal or why only dumbasses and cultural marxists are for it.

    Cultural Marxism: The Corruption of America

    The Property Basis of Rights

  12. #10
    I wonder if Ron gave Massie and Amash secret rings that when combined together cause them to change into the form of a liberty robot called RonTron2000
    "Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people
    designed to make of their victory,
    there would have been no surrender at
    Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me.
    Had I foreseen these results of subjugation,
    I would have preferred to die at Appomattox
    with my brave men, my sword in my right hand." - Robert E. Lee to Governor Fletcher S. Stockdale (D-Texas), 1870


  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by LibertyEagle View Post
    I hate when they say "defense cuts". Rand refers to it as cuts to the Pentagon.
    Correct, we must be wordsmiths, because the public is easily duped.

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by LibertyEagle View Post
    I hate when they say "defense cuts". Rand refers to it as cuts to the Pentagon.
    Agreed... When you say "Defense cuts" you scare people into thinking we want to dissolve the entire military.
    "Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people
    designed to make of their victory,
    there would have been no surrender at
    Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me.
    Had I foreseen these results of subjugation,
    I would have preferred to die at Appomattox
    with my brave men, my sword in my right hand." - Robert E. Lee to Governor Fletcher S. Stockdale (D-Texas), 1870




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