Gates: Slash the ranks
I wasn't all that thrilled when Obama kept Gates on, but I'm liking that he's walking his talk on slashing Pentagon spending. I don't hate this at all.
Gates said he will recommend that President Obama dismantle the U.S. Joint Forces Command, which employs about 2,800 military and civilian personnel as well as 3,300 contractors, most of them in southeastern Virginia. He also said he will terminate two other Pentagon agencies, impose a 10 percent cut in intelligence advisory contracts and slim down what he called a "top-heavy hierarchy" by thinning the ranks of admirals and generals by at least 50 positions.Which of course means the fattest of fat cat military contractors are safe from the cuts. But hey, you have to start somewhere and cutting out a big chunk of the brass is a pretty good place to start.
The reduction in funding for contract employees -- by 10 percent annually over three years -- excludes those in war zones.
posted by Libby Spencer at 11:43 AM
6 Comments:
As taxpayers, we'd get more bang for the buck getting rid of the Department of Education. It's a useless waste of money.
Strong statements require strong evidence, of which there is no evidence in your statement. Useless? I'm only guessing but I suspect hyperbole here.
You're not one of those "We don't need no education" folks are you? ;-)
Of course if we compare the relative cost of defense and education, I have to think of the TV ad I saw the other day for a "green and earth friendly" motor home that gets 6 inches more per gallon than the competition.
The Department of Education is a waste. It is really that simple. We did without it until 1980 so if we get rid of it, it won't be missed.
As for your snide remarks, I expected no more. Your comment a few days back about disemboweling people with your gun told me all I need to know about you. As for education, tell me how social security is going to run a surplus of $4.8 trillion when it is in the red this year?
Sorry Gilligan or Popeye or whatever your name is, I'm not impressed by your trite responses.
So you know all you need to know! All you need to know to make your pugnacious populist talking points seem to have a point, that is. The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinions, right?
You know you can't just bolt on an attitude and make your brain more powerful - and you certainly can't expect a polite conversation. Of course you weren't expecting one were you or looking for one. You were expecting to be taken for far, far more than you are, which is apparently another self-important name-calling buffoon from Detroit who got his education on TV -- which is all I need to know.
I was of course responding to a threat, so perhaps a counter threat wasn't all that out of place, hyperbolic though it was -- and speaking of hyperbole, arguments that something isn't working to your estimation and so should be canceled are so loaded with self-righteous asshole hyperbole as to give you no license to use any more of it.
Now before we get into your doubtless impeccable qualifications as a bar stool economist why don't I ask, seeing as our defense department hasn't won a war in 65 years of trying, we don't dispense with that too?
Detroit is a failure -- burn it down. America is a failure; just can't get anything right -- give it back to England or the Indians.
You know I'm in the red this year too, although over the last ten, I've made tens of millions. Should I just give up? Yeah, right, go fuck yourself.
Bolt on an attitude? What a prig. Your sole response to a comment was to respond with vulgar language?
Employment as a trailing indicator? At the rate this administration is going, employment will remain a trailing indicator for about the same length of time that occurred under FDR. I think it took about 8 years to get unemployment under 14% under the economic policies of FDR.
Fox News? I'm make you the same offer I made my neighbor when he used that tired retort. I bet him $10,000.00 that he couldn't take my remote control and find Fox News on my cable. The only cable news I get with my level is CNN. That and a bunch of foreign language channels that I can't understand but I'm forced to subsidize.
As for your wealth, I don't envy or disdain you for it. I didn't ask about it and I really don't care about it.
Did I say I went to Harvard? No, that is just your lame attempt at ridicule. The little college I went to taught me not to act like an arrogant ass. Perhaps you would have benefited from attending it. It's in Florida.
Since this isn't your blog, I'll keep my language acceptable.
"The little college I went to taught me not to act like an arrogant ass."
Time for a refresher course.
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