"I'll work with anybody," Frank said of the effort, which could attract other liberal Democrats who have tried for years to reduce post-Cold War military spending and tea party-backed Republicans.
And yes, the Tea Party groups (such as they are) are culpable:
That's why tea party groups say if the government is going to cut spending, the military's budget needs to be part of the mix.
"The widely held sentiment among Tea Party Patriot members is that every item in the budget, including military spending and foreign aid, must be on the table," said Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. (COMMENT: "Patriots"? HA!) "It is time to get serious about preserving the country for our posterity. The mentality that certain programs are 'off the table' must be taken off the table."
There are at least two Republicans offering at least some cautionary notes to disarming America to assauge the uneducated Tea Partiers:
The schism within the GOP is philosophical as well as generational. Paul's son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, 48, a tea party favorite, says all spending should come under scrutiny, from food stamps to foreign aid to money for wars. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., 74, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, worries about the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party.
...
Tea party-backed Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said lawmakers "at the end of the day, will take a look at all the fat in the budget." But he said it was premature with two wars to say how Congress will make the cuts. Scott has two brothers in the military — one in the Air Force, the other in the Army.
COMMENT: First, the largely-conservative Tea Party movement sold out the domestic social-conservative positions in the name of their pocketbooks and portfolios. Now, they are selling out their patriotism in the name of typical conservative shortsightedness and stupidity--"Well, it jes' kinda seems to me [spit]..."
Unlike virtually every other aspect of government, military operations have to be done right THE FIRST TRY. There is no appeal to regulatory agency or court of something goes wrong. One little error can have irreparable consequences. While sometimes the military system can be wasteful (and yes, if such waste can be responsibly reduced, then have it it), it does guarantee results. Redundancy of such things as equipment issuance, paperwork processing, and training, but they serve as real-world guarantees that troops WILL have the equipment they need (or might potentially need--recall the Germans' lacking of cold-weather gear for Operation: Barbarossa), that paperwork WILL be where it needs to be, and that forces actually WILL know what they need to know.
Here's a novel idea: Instead of cutting spending on saving the country and their precious "freedom", cut spending on lazyasses who don't support themselves. A little hunger might just motivate them to work for a living.
