Democrats have a plan, Republicans don’t have a clue.

[flamin lib]

Defense spending is up 20% since Bush took office. You’d think that things in the military would be just ducky. Not so. There is serious concern in the upper echelons of the non-civilian Pentagon leadership that there will be a severe shortage of command grade officers in the next ten years. It seems that young officers, particularly those in Captain and Major ranks, are leaving the service in record numbers. Wonder why? Could it be the civilian leadership at the Pentagon, particularly Don Rumsfeld? Probably so, as now three recently retired generals have called for Runsfeld’s firing. It may also be due to the 2% decrease in Veteran’s spending, or being deployed three times back to back, or not having armor and in some cases ammunition, food and shelter.

So if military spending is up 20% and VA spending is down and soldiers are going to war without armor and being deployed back to back, where the #ell is all that money going?

Short answer is Military Industrial Complex. Big business. Things like developing two new super fighter planes at one time. The next generation YF-22 has yet to go into production and the Pentagon is spending $ Billions on the Joint Strike Fighter, the next-next generation fighter. How about $11 Billion a year on missile defense which hasn’t hit a target yet and can’t possibly work. Tens of $ Billions on “bunker buster” nuclear weapons. More $ Billions on building new nuclear bomb factories. Then there’s the little issue of not being able to account for $125 Billion in Pentagon spending every year. They simply don’t know what they spent it on and can’t find it. You would think that for $490 Billion a year (more than half of all discretionary spending) they could hire someone to balance the check book.

Republicans use the war on terror to justify such run amok spending yet not a single one of those massive spending projects would have had any effect on 9/11. The things that actually do have an impact on fighting terror like troop strength, training, intelligence and such get nothing.

Republicans aren’t really strong on defense, they’re strong on defense spending. Democrats have a plan, Republicans don’t have a clue.

[AndyA]

1. Democrats have a plan, Republicans don’t have a clue.

Love this! Could be the new Dem slogan!

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[OxQQme]

5. Can you say.....

General Electric
Westinhouse
Lockheed
Boeing
et al............


I have a hard time believing there are supposed dems employed by these fund suckers.

[porphyrian]

2. Having a plan is overrated.

I know you're just meme policing, and well I might add, but I reject the whole plan premise anyway. Plans are based on too many assumptions and fail as often as not anyway. Goals are far more important than plans. Sorry for the tangent.

[sui generis]

3. but we don't have a plan

where is our budget proposal? The democratic budget proposal? We complain a lot and we pick apart THEIR plans but we don't have a counterproposal or active solutions that we can haul up and put on the table. How do we fix that?

Where is our education reform, healthcare reform, etc. plan?

We have an idea, not a plan. If we want to win we have to take a chance and have a real plan, even if it means the other side critiques it. We can always say "it's a work in progress", instead of the other thing we say which is "I didn't have time to read it before I had to sign it".

In the world of big business "First To Market" almost always wins, and the same holds true for politics.

[flamin lib]

6. There is a plan. It's published. It's here:

http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/pdfs/20060329_realsecurity.pdf

Budgets come with control of the House.

[sui generis]

8. no, budgets come with control of your party

and "plans" are published and followed by the party.

It makes me crazy to hear goofball speeches that are supposed to be stirring that just repeat "There's A Better Way" but don't say what that better way is.

We're really bad about this rhetoric without substance. The DNC and every other democratic political organization should have realistic budget plans that we work on ALL YEAR LONG and tweak and update and maintain that we can roll out on a moment's notice. I know I'm not being totally fair here, but the sentiment here is that we should have a real, implementable solution for every ill we proclaim, and a cost associated to that implementation.

Tossing our hands in the air and claiming to have a plan is ridiculous; a BUDGET is the ultimate plan for how we spend and accrue our taxes, and is a demonstration of our nation's priorities and political values. It's a real talking point when we "spurn" the republican budget, and we can throw it on the table at the drop of a hat for discussion - and maybe even rally more reasonable people to our proposals rather than leaving it to closed door house discussions.

[smartvoter]

4. Would you be so kind as to let the media in on this? nt

[flamin lib]

7. See reply # 6. nt