Barney Frank: Reduce the deficit by slashing military spending

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

Barney Frank: Reduce the deficit by slashing military spending

By Megan Carpentier
Tuesday, October 4, 2011



Though he drew a less-than-capacity crowd at the early morning plenary of the Take Back The American Dream summit (and skipped answering questions in favor of an appearance on the CBS Morning show), Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) appearance got his lefty audience on their feet for his speech about cutting military spending — before he’d even said a word.

But the applause hardly ended there. Frank kicked off his speech by explaining that he supported long-term deficit reduction for one major reason: “A credible deficit reduction plan is necessary to get the political support we need for job creation,” he said.

Frank added: “There is no way to do a socially responsible deficit reduction plan… without significant reductions in military spending.” He suggested, specifically, that the U.S. needed to cut $200 billion of its $650 billion annual budget.



Frank had a few ideas of how to achieve those cuts. In part, he said, “We spend too much because we are overcommitted.” He pointed specifically to America’s post-World War commitments: “The U.S. continues to subsidize heavily the wealthy Western nations against nonexistent threats.”

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/04/barney-frank-reduce-the-deficit-by-slashing-military-spending/

[Auggie]

1. Really? You think???

:)

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

3. +1000

[tropicanarose]

17. you said it! Glad that Barney Frank is speaking the simple truth.

[Johnyawl]

2. God bless Barney Frank!

He seems to be the only democrat with the spine to say what desperately needs to be said.

[MrNJ]

4. Great idea!

But it makes too much sense. So it's DOA.

[Plucketeer]

5. He's one of the FEW

Democrats that can speak so Frankly, and I LOVE IT! He's one of the very small number who just states flatly, the truth.

Cut the damned bloated, overstretched, military! Cut them to HALF of that 650 billion. Then come back and cut some more.

[Owl]

9. YES! +1

[Sherman A1]

6. K&R

:kick:

[JDPriestly]

7. My thanks to the voters who send Frank to Congress.

You do the work. You make the call. Thanks.

I have to add the caveat, however, that I do not agree with everything Frank says or does. Still, he is one of the better Democrats.

[Marnie]

8. The military is the biggest slice of the "entitlement" pie

so it should be the most obvious place to start big cuts.

Hell they waste billions, so cut them for the amount they waste.

[zalinda]

15. It's not the military, it's the Pentagon's

military contractors. They could save huge amounts of money, by stopping the use of private armies. Let our boys and girls do the job and pay them a higher wage. Just think about it, if you cut out every mercenary's $100,000 a year contract salary and paid the soldier who took their place $50,000, you'd save $50,000 a year on just one soldier. You cut out the company's profit margin too, and you have not only saved a bundle, but you've gotten military families off of food stamps.

During WWII, OUR military did EVERYTHING and did it well. I think when the private contractors came in, so did the stink.

zalinda

[Paper Roses]

10. Go Barney, you are a voice for all of us. n/t

[SoapBox]

11. Bravo Barney! What the *F* does the military budget get? HUNDREDS of Billions????

...cut a ton of that shit out.

Budget problems solved.

[DetlefK]

13. The Pentagon is postponing its audit since 18 years ...

Nobody knows what they use that money for.

[defendandprotect]

21. Pentagon still missing $2.3 TRILLION -- but now the records are also gone ... !!

[red dog 1]

25. "Special Prosecutor Needed Here?"

"Pentagon still missing $2.3 TRILLION--but now the records are gone..?"

If ever there was a need for a Special Prosecutor, it's here in this unbelievable misuse of government funds.

Where is Obama's "Campaign To Cut Government Waste Fraud and Abuse", which Biden is supposed to be heading?

Is the "Campaign To Cut Out Waste, Fraud and Abuse In Government" looking into this?

If not, they sure as hell should be!

[Vattel]

12. It would be nice

but most Democrats (Obama included) have no interest in serious cuts to military spending.

[defendandprotect]

14. Absolutely -- MIC should become a shadow of itself -- bring all the troops home !!

MIC budget should only be 20% of what it is now -- or less --

Get it down to half -- and then one-third --

and then keep on dropping it -- !!

[julian09]

18. Defence dept has contracts in EVERY congressional district

and jobs in those districts, that congressman want to keep. They should begin by closing bases in europe, japan, south korea. Discontinue obsolete weapons systems.

[defendandprotect]

20. Can agree with that -- but they're probably inventing new weapons faster than older ones

are becoming obsolete -- aren't they planning now to use drones in US -- ???

As for jobs -- a job is a job -- at least one that pays a living wage --

We have Global Warming -- which is a survival issue --

We have capitalism continuing exploitation of nature, natural resources, animal-life

and humans which is befouling the earth even further.

Time to move away from all of this and to GREEN jobs -- repairing infrastructure --

As Ike noted ... "What are bombs good for?" --


:evilgrin:

[Gregorian]

16. OH NO YOU D'NT!

Well that's impressive. I wonder just how far we'll go with that idea.

[L0oniX]

19. K & R

[raccoon]

22. Lucky MA, to have a guy like that! nt

[FlyByNight]

23. Damn right!!

"There is no way to do a socially responsible deficit reduction plan… without significant reductions in military spending."

Key words: socially responsible. Unfortunately, there are way too many sociopaths masquerading as legislators in Congress now (Rep. Frank excluded). They simply don't care.

Dismantle the empire.

[DeSwiss]

24. K&R

Here we go.......