Fiscally Responsible Idiots

When it comes to “national defense” the principles of fiscal responsibility and limited government do not apply when it comes to the Republican Party.

The might of the nation’s military seems to be much more a priority than balancing the budget and getting us out of debt.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that national defense is and should be a main priority and a core function of the federal government. But national defense, to me, means protecting the nation. It does not mean protecting the rest of the world.

The Pentagon has one of the most inflated budgets of any department and yet, very little of what they do has to do with national defense. That is, a very small percentage of what our military does these days has anything to do with protecting our borders, our people, and our own territory. It goes toward nation-building and being the world’s nanny. It’s not enough that the federal government has to play the nanny in our own country. We have to play policeman to the rest of the world.

What makes it worse is that many many years ago, Congress effectively gave the Executive Branch carte blanche control over the military so that the President never really needs Congressional authority to send our armed forces anywhere he wants to send them. Under the guise of national security and protecting our interests overseas and with the support of the sovereignty-crushing United Nations, the President at this point in history does not even need to justify himself to Congress for sending troops into whatever third-world country’s affair he and his advisors have decided to intervene in.

Besides the question over the over-stepping of his Constitutional authority, which is another discussion in and of itself, the President essentially has the ability to pour additional funds (that we can’t afford by the way) into more global military action.

If you ask me, if the Republican Party really wants to practice what they preach and really support the ideas of limited government and fiscal responsibility, they need to make some much-needed and initially painful cuts in the budget for the Department of Defense.

But to be honest, it won’t happen. Not anytime soon that is. The majority of Republicans that are in office do not want the cut the defense budget. They don’t really care about the principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility that they are supposed to cling to. Elected officials like John McCain and Lindsay Graham and John Boehner have no intention of giving up the golden calf of politics: money. You can be rest assured that legislators such as these men receive campaign donations from military contractors, those that make money from this continued war machine. If they make the decision the cut the military budget, the amount of money that these war profiteers make stands to decline quite a bit and in turn, people like Senator John McCain stand to lose thousands in campaign donations and special favors.

So unless the masses, that’s you and me people, hold these elected officials accountable for their decisions, or lack thereof, and elect people who are willing to stand up to the lobbyists of the defense contractors, we are not likely to see any major cuts in the defense budget in our lifetime.

Write your senator or representative about why the defense budget isn’t being reduced and I’m sure you will get a token answer about national security or the effect that cutting the defense budget will have on THEIR, oops, I mean, THE economy.

You will find that these Republican members of Congress are not nearly as supportive of fiscal responsibility and limited government as they are supposed to.

It’s time to send these folks back home.