Alleging Republican 'blind eye' on defense spending, GOP senator proposes cuts

[IDemo]

Source: NBC News

A Senate Republican fiscal hawk offered a 74-page menu of Defense Department spending cuts Thursday that could save taxpayers nearly $68 billion over 10 years. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he and his staff had identified several categories of “non-defense spending at the Pentagon,” outlays which he said had “little to do with national security.”

At a Capitol Hill press conference, Coburn accused his fellow Senate Republicans of “having a blind eye on spending.” He summed up their approach as “It’s OK to cut spending anywhere except the Defense Department.”

But, he said “to be legitimate and have any integrity on the issue … everything has to be on the table.”

In the fiscal year which ended Sept. 30, defense outlays amounted to $651 billion, 18 percent of total federal spending, which was a decline of about 3 percent from the prior fiscal year.

Read more: http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/15/15194879-alleging-republican-blind-eye-on-defense-spending-gop-senator-proposes-cuts?lite

[Dubster]

1. Spam deleted by gkhouston (MIR Team)

[IDemo]

2. Calling "edge" on a coin toss and winning is possible

Just doesn't happen very often.

[DCKit]

3. Could certainly start with some of those types of parties that Jill Kelly was "hosting"...

at McDill (and dog knows where else).

That said, I don't trust Coburn.

[Ash_F]

4. One thing that would help Repubs cope is to stop calling it "defense" spending /nt

[Bibliovore]

13. Very good point.

Things like "Military spending" and "Pentagon spending" just don't have the same ring, do they?

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. About 1% of defense spending? Wow, I'm impressed

I can see that's really going to take a huge chunk out of the deficit, or allow huge amounts of spending elsewhere ...

[rock]

9. Yes it's pathetic

Even for Shitpublicans!

[Mr. Sparkle]

6. That seems very small compared to the size of the budget.

maybe maths isn't their strong point.

[progressoid]

7. Pfft. A drop in the ocean.

But I guess it's a start.

[penndragon69]

8. Yes...privatize more of the jobs that soldiers do everyday.

Who needs soldiers doing the cooking, running supplies of making the water drinkable, just turn it all over
to outside contractors like KBR !

We already tried that one and it cost us MILLIONS in excess charges, waste and fraud.

Just shut down redundant military basses and stop buying / developing useless
unwanted weapon systems and excess spare parts for outdated equipment.

[loyalkydem]

10. Is it wrong

for me not to trust this guy? He does vote along party lines after all.

[freshwest]

11. Not in my book. This is his Trojan horse to cut social spending. He's full of ____.

[on point]

12. Not nearly enough. Try $500 billion / yr for 10 yrs, $5 Trillion.