Ron Paul: Clinton didn't cut defense enough

The Ron Paul Survival Report | May 15, 1993 | Ron Paul

[LSUfan]

Ron Paul Survival Report

May 15, 1993

Volume IX Number 5

Page 6

Defense Cuts?

In spite of all the rhetoric minimal cuts will be made in the military budget. The "savings" are gained by cutting back on proposed increases. For 1994 Clinton has asked for $278 billion. That's only $2 billion less than Bush had requested. Over the next five years, Clinton has proposed an additional $12 billion more than Bush had asked fior. And that doesn't mean that it will happen. Essentially Clinton's proposals will maintain military spending at Cold War levels over the next five years, to exceed $1.3 trillion. In the past it was thought that liberals were less interventionist overseas because they represented the anti-war movement in the 1960s. However, most of this anti-war movement was motivated by not wanting to fight communism, not principled anti-interventionism. Today the liberals and the Democrats are much more interventionist than the Republicans and the conservatives. This policy of intenventionism overseas, with the absence of a Soviet menace, encourages the building of a coalition between the Old Right and libertarians in presenting the constitutional case for "minding our own business."

[publiusF27]

From the Economic Report of the President, we get...

Defense spending numbers during Clinton’s term:

1992 - $298.4 billion
1993 - $291.1
1994 - $281.6
1995 - $272.1
1996 - $265.8
1997 - $270.5
1998 - $268.2
1999 - $274.8
2000 - $294.4

So in 1993, Ron Paul was saying that the cut of less than 1% in the defense budget was not enough. The next year, Republicans took control of spending by taking the Congress, and they seemed to agree, based on the above numbers.

And yet now we’re being told that the cut of 0.97% in that year allowed the 9/11 attack. Wow. Who knew our budget was so fine-tuned that we could have spend just a few more billion back then to avoid 9/11.

[freekitty]

Amazing.

[vaudine]

"If half the waste, fraud and abuse ...in government....were brought to a halt there would probably be no need for a budget cut.."

That is an insurmountable IF because of the greedy and slovenly nature of the beast.

vaudine