Ah, there we go. I needed a little good news. I’m not sure if it was his intention, but by signing a bill that both cuts back on defensive spending and increases protection against hate crimes, President Obama just signed a two-fer that’s likely to piss off his opposition for a while. Pro-gay, anti-troop, that’s Barry-O.
You might expect me to focus more on the hate crime part (after all, that was in the title), but nope. It’s the defense biz-nass that interests me.
Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates targeted certain projects for elimination, putting them at odds with some lawmakers. The same spending items deemed unnecessary or outdated by Pentagon officials can mean lost jobs and political fallout for lawmakers back in their home districts.
“When Secretary Gates and I first proposed going after some of these wasteful projects, there were a lot of people who didn’t think it was possible, who were certain we were going to lose, who were certain that we were going to get steamrolled,” Obama said. “Today, we have proven them wrong.”
In another of several examples, the legislation terminates the replacement helicopter program for the president’s own fleet. That program is six years behind schedule and estimated costs have doubled to more than $13 billion.
See, the right often prides itself on being all pro-defense, pro-security, and pro-military, an image that frequently manifests in ways like criticizing this or that president or Congressman for supporting a spending cut on this or that weapon system or program. As if any and all cutbacks in the sphere of defense indicates disdain for it.
What they seem to not realize is that we’re in an age of precision, and an age of relative peace. That may sound counter-intuitive, what with the two-sided war and those pumping for another, but these are security measures. We don’t have a lot of need for swaths of fighter jets and helicopters, bunker buster bombs and missile shields. The United States isn’t in the middle of a massive assault a la WWII nor a huge arms race like we were against the Soviets. Now is the time to refine our approach, and that means cutting some extra fat.
Also, yeah, it’s cool that assaulting someone over sexual orientation is a hate crime now.
[...] the discussion. via whitehouse.gov click through the link to submit your questions now. Obama gets some hate crime legislation passed – hanlonsrazor.org 10/28/2009 Ah, there we go. I needed a little good news. I’m not sure if [...]