Romney to cut everything. Except Pentagon spending.

Look above for a desperate diatribe. I'm merely pointing out your childish understanding of geopolitical realities. This isn't a game of Risk. An unnecessary, bloated, expensive base doesn't secure our "influence." The GOP loves constituents like you because your understanding is simple and unschooled. You are guided by an archaic fear that's been obsolete since the '50s.

Once again, the so-called small government righties refuse to touch the bloated cash cow of unnecessary military spending.

Anytime you want to explain how closing those bases and moving those troops home is going to save all that money, feel free. The fact that you haven't even tried is quite telling.

You have no understanding of geo-political realities...and live in some pie in the sky world where everyone is nice and friendly and will just love us if we roll up into a little ball and never venture away from our shores... Embarrassingly naive is the best way to describe your worldview...with hopelessly uninformed a close second.

We have over 50,000 troops on something like 25 military bases in Germany. If we were to close most of them, whom is it that you see filling the vacuum that will be created? France?

We could close those bases and bring those troops home, I don't know enough to say if they could be removed from active duty, but I would imagine many of them could as they would be redundant on another base. And I don't know the real numbers of what it costs to run those bases, but if they were back home on bases here, there has to be huge inherent savings. Just the way consolidation works.

But let's say you are right, that we need every one of those guys on active duty and for some reason we equal costs having them here; wouldn't it still be better to be spending that money here on American companies and American workers instead of this huge foreign aid we give to Germany?

I'm not saying that we need every foreign base to remain open....but clearly in the long run, the bases in Germany have probably saved billions of billions during the cold war when they were the only thing stopping the Soviets from overrunning more of Europe. Closing them wouldn't put a small dent in the deficit, and even if you dump all of those in the service out, wouldn't save all that much in the end. Especially not enough to justify the constant outcry and implication that its the trump card to our budget issues.

Looking past Germany, what do you think happens if we leave S. Korea ? Or Japan ? Or other places in the middle east? And back to Germany for a second, its a nice place to have bases in relation to the middle east, should the need ever arise.

When you look at the larger picture and the benefit of those bases over the years and in total.... I would say what we receive back and have received back has greatly outweighed the costs. In safety/security, influence, and trade. It's not even close.

Perhaps it really will not save us much, but hasn't that been the same argument against specific cuts that the Ds tend to make? If we are going to cut spending we have to do it everywhere. And redundant bases seems like a good place to start with the military.

Those decisions should be made based on strategic/security considerations, not budget considerations. No one in Washington is talking about cutting spending at all...just reducing the rate of growth. Its all a sham. And if Medicare/SS are not reformed..none of the other stuff matters at all. The entire 'foreign bases' argument is an empty diversion used by leftists like Paul and his minions... and parrotted by others on the left.

Fuck you ! The military budget has been over inflated for over a decade. The other stuff matters. More than your puny mind can absorb !

Typical rightie hypocrisy. You haven't tried explaining how it would be more expensive to close the bases, other than pulling some bare assertions out of your bare ass.

Hmm, should I believe an anonymous Fox drone on SFN or a 4 star general:
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/military-base-closings-needed/2010/09/15/id/370426

"We've got too many daggone bases," Brady told the annual Air Force Association conference, noting that base closures could save millions of dollars a year while averting more onerous personnel cuts or reductions in military missions.
"We really need to look at the real estate question again. I don't think we can afford not to," he said.
"There's big money there."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates unveiled 23 new measures Tuesday to end years of massive cost overruns on weapons programs, saying the military needed to "do more without more."



Read more on Newsmax.com: General: U.S. Military Needs to Close More Bases

Yeah, we are going to save millions..... can you say drop in the bucket...just like I said.. (and thats the best case scenario) furthermore, why don't you ask him how that money will be saved since he seems to indicate that the personnel would not be cut.... hmmmm And his comments were missing any specifics... you can ask him about that too.

And you do realize that he wants to do this to offset other supposed cuts in the defense budget, right ???? You with him on that too? Or is your support much more selective.

Keep trying.

raise the funding of a program by 10% one year, and then in the following year only raise it again by 5% politicians claim funding has been cut by 5% and the American public (gullible fools) believe a program is being cut......you are completely correct here, there's no real cut in spending by either side

Why is the military considered a sacred cow? We have 15 TRILLION in debt and are running TRILLION dollar deficits as far into the future as on can see. Spending cuts need to happen across the board and the military should no be excluded.
We spend AT LEAST 750 BILLION A YEAR on the military, why can't they get by on 500 BILLION.
Closing bases in Germany, France, etc etc etc may not reach the whole 250 billion but it is a start.

Do you Republisheep really believe that you can increase spending on defense, cut taxes and only reduce spending on social programs to achieve a balanced budget and pay down the debt??

15 TRILLION in debt and the number is risind daily, all programs need to be cut with no exceptions.

Are you kidding? Think of how much we spent today on clothing feeding paying the soilders we have in Japan just today! All the money they spend is great for Japan's economy . Bring them back home. We are closing domestic bases . At least when they spend money in the states it's recycled into our economy.

Take a look at how much of that 750 Billion in discretionary spending, is really defense spending being camoflauged.

Oh. And with less grunts needed we won't have to give the farm away to buy off kids into joining the military . Like we had to do after bushes Iraq mess. That was the only way to meet quotas.

We keep those bases open because of fear. This country is afraid of it's own shadow. That's why we run around with guns shooting 17 year old kids. Fear

Gun sales have been a bright spot in the economy.

The real crime is the blithering idiot refuses to acknowledge the present model is unsustainable.

There is proof positive that theses bases are hurting us, not helping in any way, this country is going bankrupt with its military spending.

And of course the fool forgot all about "The Peace Dividend" that Bush 41 initiated. Closing bases save money, even a retard could comprehend that.

Im stunned. Seriously who can say closeing bases would NOT save money. They are the very definition of money pits.!!

Unfortunately the outcome of the base closings cost more money . They had to build/ enlarge facilities that were too small or didn't have enough room for the condensing of bases. The actual transfers of personel and material was far more costly than the benefits they were supposed to generate.

Thats a different argument. I have no problem closing bases IF they are closed for strategic/defense reasons as opposed to the idea that its going to save billions of dollars... However, in general your idea here seems to indicate you can't see the forest beyond all those pesky trees that are in the way.

We could cut (real cuts) military spending by 50% and we would still be headed over the financial cliff. Until Medicare and SS are seriously reformed, NOTHING else matters..nothing. And as a % of GDP, military spending is not all that high relative to the past.

You are seriously deluded. We are talking about how spending in the past got us in such deep shit and you claim that "IT IS NOT ALL THAT HIGH IN RELATIVE TO THE PAST " ????????


Keep the meds flowing you blithering idiot !

Military wise itd make sense to have all these bases. It would also make safety sense to have a police station in every neighborhood. But fiscally that's insane.

I'm not saying we shut down all bases. But we can cut back and still be just as safe.

At the same time we increase the fiscal safety of the us, with minimal affect to Americans.

Here is where you are missing the boat.... it 'might' save a little money to close some bases without any long term detrimental effect. But that $ amount would be trivial when compared to the deficit. And again, for all its talked about, its next to irrelevant fiscally when compared to the real problem areas like Medicare and SS. Do you support the Ryan/Widen(D) plan for medicare reform? If not, why not? And what do you support ?

What long term detrimental effects are u talking about?

As far as Medicare and Ss? I see the way to improve things is real real health care reform. Right now the taxpayers are being gouged by the current system.

Also I think u underestimate the true cost of the pentagon as much of their costs are transferred to other agencies .