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September 02, 2004

A Gentle Reminder

By Jim Dallas

And if I hear anyone ever impugn Kerry's defense voting record again, I will challenge you to a duel (from Fred Kaplan in Slate):

Here, one more time, is the truth of the matter: Kerry did not vote to kill these weapons, in part because none of these weapons ever came up for a vote, either on the Senate floor or in any of Kerry's committees.

This myth took hold last February in a press release put out by the RNC. Those who bothered to look up the fine-print footnotes discovered that they referred to votes on two defense appropriations bills, one in 1990, the other in 1995. Kerry voted against both bills, as did 15 other senators, including five Republicans. The RNC took those bills, cherry-picked some of the weapons systems contained therein, and implied that Kerry voted against those weapons. By the same logic, they could have claimed that Kerry voted to disband the entire U.S. armed forces; but that would have raised suspicions and thus compelled more reporters to read the document more closely.

What makes this dishonesty not merely a lie, but a damned lie, is that back when Kerry cast these votes, Dick Cheney—who was the secretary of defense for George W. Bush's father—was truly slashing the military budget. Here was Secretary Cheney, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 31, 1992:

Overall, since I've been Secretary, we will have taken the five-year defense program down by well over $300 billion. That's the peace dividend. … And now we're adding to that another $50 billion … of so-called peace dividend.

Cheney then lit into the Democratic-controlled Congress for not cutting weapons systems enough:

Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you've squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements. … You've directed me to buy more M1s, F14s, and F16s—all great systems … but we have enough of them.

Posted by Jim Dallas at September 2, 2004 05:54 PM | TrackBack


Comments

You guys didn't go back far enough. Try Reagan administration; "We are continuing a defense buildup that is consuming our resources with weapons systems that we don't need and can't use."
"John Kerry believes that we can cut from $45 to $53 Billion from the Reagan Defense budget this year. Some of these cuts include:

B-1 Bomber cancel $8.00 Billion
MX Missile cancel $5.00 Billion
Tomahawk Missile reduce by 50 percent $294. Million

AH-64 Helicopters cancel $1.4 Billion
Aegis Cruiser cancel $800 Million
F-15 Fighter cancel $2.3 Billion
F-14a Fighter cancel $1.00 Billion.

etc.

I will never forget that the Defense Budget is not an employment program..."

Come on guys do proper research. I guess that $5000.00 from the DNC doesn't pay for research does it?

Posted by: peter at September 3, 2004 10:22 AM

Firstly, the magic words that Zell used were "voted to cut". Kerry never voted on anything.

Second, these are from Kerry's first Senate campaign in 1984. 20 years ago. And many of these assertions were not controversial 20 years ago. The source apparently is detailed here: http://www.lt-smash.us/archives/002675.html

See for example: http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/weapons.asp?print=y

The MX missile program was eliminated by Reagan himself!

The B-1 bomber? President Carter cut it, before Reagan revived it.

The AH-64, M-1, and F-14? Dick Cheney all wanted to cut those in 1992!

The F-14 and F-15? They're pretty much obsolete now, which is why they didn't run many sortees in Afghanistan or Iraq. They were obsolete in 1984 (both being Vietnam-era programs); cutting the F-14 and F-15 then would have meant that the F-16 and F-18 would have assumed the burden of defending America... which they did ANYWAY!

Why it is that the US military still orders F-15/E Strike Eagles boggles my mind.

The AEGIS? Probably a bonehead decision. But to call it the backbone of America's navy is probably a stretch.

Let me assert a claim contra conventional wisdom:

The US military has invested too much money in weapons systems which are redundant and not in line with good military planning. At one point in his political career (namely 20 years ago), John Kerry made some noises IN LIBERAL MASSACHUSETTS about reigning in the excesses of the Reagan buildup.

Is that so bad? Is that akin to fighting a war with "spitballs"? Absolutely the fucking not!

Posted by: Jim D at September 3, 2004 01:06 PM

My comment about the MX should have read "Bush 41" killed it.

Since it is, at least in theory, outlawed under START II (and the US is supposed to be getting rid of all our MX missiles this year).

Posted by: Sorry at September 3, 2004 01:11 PM
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