An SOS for the Coast Guard

The Foundry (Heritage.Org) ^ | 4/18/2012 | Brian Slattery

[RiverHymnner]

The Coast Guard needs to call more attention to its undersized fleet, according to Congressional Research Service expert Ron O’Rourke. While the sea service has publicized its requirement list, “the other part [of the discussion] is the extent to which that program of record will permit the Coast Guard to perform its projected missions. That’s the part that doesn’t get talked about generally,” O’Rourke explained at the 2012 Sea-Air-Space convention in Washington, D.C.

[Mr Apple]

The Administration and Congress should act responsibly and support a robust Coast Guard fleet.

The Administration (socialist demorats and obama) have taken Coast Guard money and put that money into next years GSA Las Vegas event funding. Or is that money going for a larger tip jar for prostitutes! Or for it's plans to run ads to convince everyone to purchase dog food for our kids?

[darkwing104]

The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for the Coast Guard...I am not to sure we need to give the Agency of Pervs money inorder to maintain the only organization under its control that is effective....If you want to help out the Coast Guard transfer them away from Homeland Security.

[sjmjax]

We can’t afford to spend money on frivolous things like the Coast Guard when there is much more pressing needs like parties for the GSA and hookers for the Secret Service.

[Ramius]

As a former Transportation department Coastie... I don’t have any particular heartburn about them being in the new DHS. Apart from the name, which is awful, the composition of the department actually makes quite a lot of sense. CG, Customs, Border Patrol, BATF etc. really ought to be under the same roof.

That said... The USCG has always been the bastard child of whatever department they were in, from Treasury, to Transportation, to DHS. We operated on a shoestring budget back in my day... And I suppose they still do. There was just never enough budget to cover even some essentials. I was a QM (navigator) on ships. I remember many times that I had to spend my own money on equipment and tools, and many times brought in my own tools to take care of various things.