12 Dems Join Dirty & Wasteful Missile Defense Fantasy
Consider how, throughout the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, Republican members of Congress has sought to undermine the role of Congress in overseeing and making decisions about the funding for the conflict. Republicans have argued that Congress shouldn’t “micromanage” the military, though Congress has been making military decisions since the Revolutionary War.
The truth is that Republicans try to micromanage the military from Congress all the time. For example, last week, Representative Trent Franks attempted to change the course of the Obama White House policy on missile defense. Franks proposed an amendment to the Defense appropriations bill for the coming fiscal year. His amendment declared that it would be the policy of the U.S. government to continue missile defense testing, spending 1.2 billion dollars for the purpose.
Republicans like Franks complain about extravagant government spending, but here, Franks is proposing an increase in spending. To be fair, Franks also proposed an offset in reduced spending. That reduction would come in the cleanup of toxic waste sites created by the military, sites that endanger American citizens and diminish our nation’s natural resources.
So, the Franks amendment is a dirty piece of legislation, preventing the restoration of a clean USA. It’s also a wasteful piece of legislation. Here’s why: Missile defense testing has been going on for decades now, since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, but all that testing has yet to produce a missile defense system that is actually capable of defending the United States from a missile in real world circumstances.
Missile defense testing is pork barrel spending. It funnels money to defense contractors who in turn spend a lot of money buying influence with members of Congress. It’s a source of corruption in our nation’s politics, and it doesn’t make us one bit more secure.
All but 13 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for this boondoggle. However, twelve dizzy-minded Democrats joined the House Republicans to vote for the dirty waste. They were:
Melissa Bean
Bobby Bright
Henry Cuellar
Artur Davis
Parker Griffith
Deborah Halvorson
Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin
Ann Kirkpatrick
Jim Marshall
Michael McMahon
Gary Peters
Zachary Space
We’re lucky that not all Democrats share the greedy, pork-hungry attitude of these representatives. The amendment failed, but If just a few more Democrats crossed over to vote with the Republicans, the Franks amendment might have passed.
Micromanage? It’s not like it’s Congress’ responsibility or anything…
“Missile defense testing has been going on for decades now, since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, but all that testing has yet to produce a missile defense system that is actually capable of defending the United States from a missile in real world circumstances.”
This is not accurate. The rudimentary systems we have in place now are the result of a little over 5 years of development, testing, and deployment.
Actually, oversight of the Executive, including the military, IS the responsibility of Congress. Funding is too.
I don’t know how you can say that with a straight face, Jeremy. The money for development of missile defense started to be spent under Reagan, over 20 years ago.
[...] voted against a bipartisan compromise climate change and clean energy bill. She voted in favor of building bases with missile defense technology that has yet to be proven to work reliably. She [...]