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Serocco Serocco from Miami, Florida Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
Serocco
#50527: Mar 3rd 2013 at 1:41:46 PM

If we've gotten to a point where the Republicans don't care about the military getting cut, then we probably don't understand what exactly is getting cut at defense.

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
DeviantBraeburn Wandering Jew from Dysfunctional California Since: Aug, 2012
Wandering Jew
#50528: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:03:41 PM

[up]

The Republicans are split on the Military issue.

The Tea Party Republicans legitimately seem to believe that the Sequester is either not a bad thing or not a thing at all.

edited 3rd Mar '13 2:05:45 PM by DeviantBraeburn

Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016
Serocco Serocco from Miami, Florida Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
Serocco
#50529: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:09:10 PM

Then they're either stupid or ignorant.

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#50530: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:27:02 PM

Some are. Some are determined to destroy government at any cost and genuinely believe it to be a good thing that they do so.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#50531: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:30:47 PM

Ok, who thought it was a good idea to let anarchists into the government? That just sounds like a bad combination.

Thorn14 Gunpla is amazing! Since: Aug, 2010
Gunpla is amazing!
#50532: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:30:53 PM

I thought cuts are what conservatives and tea partiers want...

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#50533: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:32:28 PM

The Tea Party is composed of a coalition of social conservatism and a distorted quasi-libertarian ethos. They want a minarchist society that enshrines anti-gay, anti-liberal, and anti-immigrant morality.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#50534: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:35:13 PM

And Republicans thought it was a good thing to let them grow into prominence within their party's ranks, why?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Serocco Serocco from Miami, Florida Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
Serocco
#50536: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:37:18 PM

[up][up]Because their donors, the Koch brothers largely, are of the same camp.

edited 3rd Mar '13 2:37:41 PM by Serocco

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#50537: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:37:25 PM

[up][up][up] Greed, fanaticism, some combination of both.

edited 3rd Mar '13 2:37:33 PM by rmctagg09

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#50538: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:52:42 PM

Let me rephrase what I said. Who thought it would be a good idea to let the Theme Park Version of anarchists into the government?

Belian In honor of my 50lb pup from 42 Since: Jan, 2001
In honor of my 50lb pup
#50539: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:58:55 PM

Unfortunately, the serious answer is "their constituents".

Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#50540: Mar 3rd 2013 at 2:59:17 PM

...Why are you leftists objecting to defense cuts, again? grin

More seriously, libertarians on both sides of the aisle have always favored slashing defense budgets. (See one Paul, Ron.) It's just that a twisted hate child of libertarianism and social conservatism is currently dominating the Republican Party.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#50541: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:00:54 PM

There is a big difference between reasonably downsizing or decreasing waste in the defense budget and torching the Pentagon.

If these cuts go through and the Dems dodge the blame than maybe this will cost the GOP their perception as being the party that's "pro military/strong on defense".

edited 3rd Mar '13 3:03:52 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#50542: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:06:38 PM

Marq: Because it was a growing movement and they needed a way to overcome the Democratic majority. Also they've often spoke of the virtues of small government. The Tea Party is just more extreme than anything they've had up till now.

Ramidel: Because we want waste and stupid R&D projects to be removed. A 9% cut to everything is stupid because it doesn't give them any chance to prioritize. BS stuff gets cut just as much as programs that are actually necessary. The military's budget needs to come down but it shouldn't be crippled like this.

edited 3rd Mar '13 3:08:11 PM by Kostya

RadicalTaoist scratching at .8, just hopin' from the #GUniverse Since: Jan, 2001
scratching at .8, just hopin'
#50543: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:08:30 PM

Why are you leftists objecting to defense cuts, again?
I'm totally happy with mothballing carriers and ditching the F-35. I am not so keen on firing military servicemen and extending the tours of the ones who remain while cutting their benefits.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.
DrunkGirlfriend from Castle Geekhaven Since: Jan, 2011
#50545: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:11:07 PM

Yeah, same here. I'd be okay with paring back the military to a defensive force, but arbitrary cuts are never good.

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian
Belian In honor of my 50lb pup from 42 Since: Jan, 2001
In honor of my 50lb pup
#50546: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:13:30 PM

In theory, we are suposed to have the military needed to fight aproximately two-and-a-half wars. And we have been maintaining that with technology while the personel has shrunk. That is a major reason we have been spending so much money on the military—you could even argue that we have not been spending enough.

The military is also one of the two areas that have created the most inventions to reach their goals (the other being the space program).

By having sudden across-the-board cuts, the military won't be able to do its primary job, we won't see the benifits of their experiments, lots of currently signed contracts will need to be changed, and the companies that are relying on those contracts will probably have to fire some people (or hire fewer).

Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#50547: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:14:54 PM

Marq: Because it was a growing movement and they needed a way to overcome the Democratic majority. Also they've often spoke of the virtues of small government. The Tea Party is just more extreme than anything they've had up till now.
And from what I gathered, they're more extreme than even most of the pre-Tea Party "extreme conservative" Republicans can stomach — or was it "the more-or-less moderate conservative majority"?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#50548: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:18:58 PM

Its not so much the extremism that turns other Republicans on the right off, its the impact the Tea Party is having. Between these cuts and Tea Partiers saying stupid shit and then losing races that, by all rights, the GOP should be winning handily, the GOP establishment is starting to see them as a liability.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
DeviantBraeburn Wandering Jew from Dysfunctional California Since: Aug, 2012
Wandering Jew
#50549: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:19:27 PM

A five-time Connecticut state representative issued an apology and was stripped of his leadership post for what some people construed as a lewd remark to a teenage girl.

“If you’re bashful I got a snake sitting under my desk here,” State Representative Ernest Hewett, D-New London, can be heard telling a 17-year-old girl during a February 20 committee meeting.

tongue

edited 3rd Mar '13 3:19:51 PM by DeviantBraeburn

Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#50550: Mar 3rd 2013 at 3:22:18 PM

Belian: How do we not spend enough? We spend more than over a dozen nations combined and only a handful of those are even close to being enemies. Even if we slashed it in half we'd still be spending twice what China does.

Marq: I don't quite follow. I don't know if they're necessarily more extreme than the previous extremists. They're probably about equal. The main problem is that now they're the majority in one of the two main parties in the nation. Before they were a fringe group within the Republican party.

Deviant's Link: Dude you do not say that to a 17 year old. That is not okay.

Even if that's above the age of consent in Connecticut(is it?) that is not the time or place for that shit.

edited 3rd Mar '13 3:25:10 PM by Kostya


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