This article caught my eye on Monday.
Tea Party members agree that everything is on the table.
Being a fairly conservative guy when it comes to fiscal matters, I generally agree that the government spends too much money. As a realist & non-politician, I don't understand the logic of trying to reduce the size of government while making vast swaths of it off-limits to the budget ax.
Am I suggesting that our soldiers be denied equipment, pay, penicillin shots, etc.? Hell no! What I am suggesting is that within a defense budget of $700 billion, there is bound to be areas that can be cut, made more efficient and the like.
Am I suggesting that defense work be outsourced to the Halliburton's of this world? Hell no! But we need to talk about whether or not, for example, we need all of these over-seas military bases. We need to talk about which weapons systems are actually wanted and needed, vs. those that are simply the pet projects of some member of Congress.
If we seriously expect entitlement spending to be open to budget reductions, then the whole budget should be open as well. No more sacred cows. No more political posturing ("I am for a strong defense! Senator Doe is not because he wants to deny our soldiers the equipment they need!").
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