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Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA), who tied the supposed cuts to the financial sector bailout and the stimulus. "Today's announcement of defense cuts is a reaction to the fiscal strain caused by trillions in bailout and stimulus spending, rather than a result of regular strategic review and overall threat analysis,"
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) joined in the fun, arguing that "[w]hile President Obama is pushing for mind-boggling increases in domestic spending, the one place he wants to cut spending is defense"
"This makes no sense," Akin went on, "not only because the world is not becoming safer, but because these cuts will eliminate thousands of well-paying jobs across America."
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As it happens, it doesn't make sense, but only because these guys don't know what they're talking about.
In truth, this explains why Republican policymakers have so much trouble with budgeting. They've convinced themselves that $534 billion is less than $513 billion. It's long been apparent that GOP lawmakers are bad at governing; it now appears they're also surprisingly bad at arithmetic.
It's hard to believe the political discourse could be this ridiculous. The Obama administration not only wants to spend more on the military than Bush did, it also wants to spend more than China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran spend on defense combined -- times three.
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Neither Gates nor Obama are proposing defense "cuts." Maybe they should, but they're not. Conservatives -- including conservative Democrats -- who argue otherwise just aren't telling the truth.
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I feel like we're banging our heads against a wall -- Repubs won't stop lying until the reward for doing so is removed. We have to find a way to change the incentive structure -- as long as the MSM is willing to repeat the blatant lies that the Repubs are telling , this seems to be working for Repubs whose constituents follow Fox News (and even some of the more mainstream but still lily-livered news sources).---
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--REMEMBER WHEN DEMOCRATS-- TRIED TO HOLD BUSH RESPONSABLE FOR THE HUGE DEBT,,THE REPUBLICANS ALL SAID WITH A LOUD VOICE ---YOU ARE UN-PATRIOTIC-YOU ARE AGAINST THE TROOPS-----NOW HOW ((((((((ALTHOUGH IT IS PASSED))))))) HOW MANY TIMES DID REPUBLICANS PHILIBUSTER THE DEFENCE SPENDING BILL....!!!!!!!!
