Interesting article by Rep. Paul and Rep. Frank

#1
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Chattaben

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#1
I ran across this article and found it pretty interesting and was curious what you all thought about it. What I got out of it was basically the entire world depends on us for security (duh) and that we suffer financially because of it. The European social model is only possible because they spend less than half of what we do on military/defense issues. Any talk of deficit reduction has to include a decrease in the defense budget.

I see some truth in it. Why can't we take all the troops in Okinowa and put them in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico? Wouldn't it be better to put more of our resources where they are needed instead of a place that hasn't seen war in 60 years?

Why we must reduce military spending (Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul) - The Hill's Congress Blog
 
#2
#2
couple of things here:

its our strong military that makes our US$ the currency of choice throughout the world

Its our strong miltary that makes foreigners want to invest $ in our economy and do business with us.

Its our strong military that has prevented WWIII

and in this 21 century Global market that we are in, we need bases scattered throughout the world to be able to react to different threats. BUT I do agree we could reduce some spending, or at least freeze it
 
#3
#3
if the Congress had just kept spending within the Constitutional limits imposed by Article 1 Section 8, this wouldn't be an issue.
 
#4
#4
With 75% of the annual budget going to military and entitlements you can't cut one without cutting the other. There is no doubt that we need to keep our military strong as per the reasons posted earlier but I do believe we are way over doing it and need to find a happy balance.
 
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#5
How do you think other Republicans will react to Tea Party hero, Republican Ron Paul calling for cuts in the defense budget?

Couldn't the use of our military bases providing security for Europe and the world be seen as foreign aid? Everyone can agree that we spend to much on foreign aid. Why can't Europe protect itself? What exactly are we protecting Europe from? The Soviet Union?
 
#6
#6
We need the world-wide military bases so we can quickly react to threats to American interests. Like stated above, they also serve as a deterrent to mad dictators. I would first like to see the US cut out all the duplicated effort in the defense budget. I imagine that alone would take a nice little chunk out of the budget. Then we can see where to go from there.

Unfortunately many R's are hypocritical in that they will not even look at the defense budget to see where common sense cuts are necessary. They hear defense cut and stick their head in the sand.
 
#8
#8
No problem with the notion of cutting defenses spending - we need to cut across the board (not proportionally though).
 
#9
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Chattaben said:
How do you think other Republicans will react to Tea Party hero, Republican Ron Paul calling for cuts in the defense budget?

Couldn't the use of our military bases providing security for Europe and the world be seen as foreign aid? Everyone can agree that we spend to much on foreign aid. Why can't Europe protect itself? What exactly are we protecting Europe from? The Soviet Union?
Click to expand...

You clearly don't know anything about Ron Paul. He has always advocated this sort of thing.
 
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IPorange said:
You clearly don't know anything about Ron Paul. He has always advocated this sort of thing.
Click to expand...

I saw him during the 2008 primary talking about this and his stance regarding the war on drugs, which like bham said, this is not his first time going against the establishment. I wondering if the democrats will use him as cover as they try to push for these types of cuts. I'm leaning more to agree with them on this issue. Get out of Europe, they can defend themselves. We could use the money here to pay off debts or go into other areas of national security, like our borders.
 
#11
#11
They would be idiots to use him as cover, as his views are diametrically opposed to virtually all of the dems' domestic positions and policies.
 
#15
#15
Okinawa was a bad example but we definitely need to cut back on the bases we have in Europe. With the slow defunding of NATO by our EU counter parts its time to let them start putting their money where their mouth is.

Canada is a bigger culprit of using US military might to its advantage.
 
#18
#18
We obviously need to be in the Pacific, Europe should fend for itself.
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#19
#19
Looks like the Pacific just got a whole lot more interesting lately. I doubt after the money we spent on retrofitting the Subs, that just made their presence felt over there, means we would be leaving any time soon
 
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