Mitt Romney’s defense cult [Fascinating Wording. Romney Electable? Yeah, right.]

The Washington Post ^ | October 12, 2011 | Matt Miller

[delacoert]

Mitt Romney is part of a cult — the cult of ever higher defense spending.

Republican members of this cult believe that the only way in today’s media and political culture to signal you are “strong” on defense is to propose a bigger defense budget than Democrats.

Democratic members of this cult believe that the only way to avoid losing elections to Republicans is to call for as much or more defense spending than the GOP.

Guess what happens to the boundaries of debate when this “my defense budget is bigger than yours” mentality dominates official Washington? As with so many pseudo-debates between the two parties, intelligent thinking — or, really, any thinking at all — is the first casualty.

Romney is plainly prepared to make that sacrifice in his quest for power. In his speech at the Citadel last week, and again in the GOP debate Tuesday night, Romney pledged to reverse President Obama’s “massive defense cuts.”

But since Obama hasn’t cut defense spending (he’s raised it for three years) – and since the president’s proposed trims from projected defense increases are a small fraction of what a saner America would undertake – Romney’s position is untenable. No matter. The thrust and parry it will set in motion assures that another campaign will pass with no questions asked about how our bloated defense establishment devours cash desperately needed for investments at home.

A few facts make the inanity clear:

Defense spending was about $740 billion in the fiscal year that just ended, up from $698 billion when Obama took office. Since we spent about $450 billion a year (adjusted for inflation) during the Cold War, that means we’re spending over 50 percent more today. But back then we faced a giant enemy nation with huge military arsenals, not nimble

[delacoert]

Interesting use of Romney + cult.

Those saying today's press would never use the Mormon card ...

BWAA HA HA HA

[traditional1]

Watch out for the assault by the Romney-the-RINO crowd here on FR.

[delacoert]

... Romney-the-RINO crowd ...

More likely the Romney campaign moles and Morg-mouths.

They don't have much of a future on this site.

[familyop]

"Mitt Romney is part of a cult — the cult of ever higher defense spending."

That would be a good thing. We would do well to have several other departments completely closed (e.g., Education) for the sake of funding defense.

[stylin19a]

The RATS will paint Romney as “Obama Lite”...might as well vote for the real thing.

hey...maybe the DNC would hire me ?