Putting the focus on cuts to Georgia’s military bases
We started the day with an item about U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss calling for one of three presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to focus on a solution to the $16 trillion federal deficit – and recommendations by the Simpson-Bowles Commission to address it.
Chambliss will have to walk a fine line in the next few days, however. My AJC colleague Daniel Malloy says the senator is about to embark on a campaign to shield Georgia from some serious mandatory defense cuts, with an eight-stop tour of military bases:
And lest anyone accuse the Republican Chambliss of politicking – he’s even inviting Democrats.
Albany Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop will join Chambliss at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany and at Fort Benning in Columbus on Monday. Later in the month, Augusta Democratic Rep. John Barrow will snag some bipartisan cred in the midst of a tough election year by joining Chambliss at Fort Gordon.
The other stops will be Marietta, Warner Robins, Savannah, King’s Bay and Valdosta. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson will be along for a few, and some other U.S. House members will join in their districts.
Because of the Budget Control Act – a.k.a the deal last year made to hike the debt ceiling, about $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years begin on Jan. 1, split between military spending and domestic agencies. Republicans and many Democrats are frantically trying to find ways to avoid the defense cuts, which Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has warned will severely damage military readiness.
It also will shed jobs in Georgia, one of the most military-heavy states in the country.
In the presidential campaign, Republicans are trying to pin the cuts on President Barack Obama, which is difficult considering the reductions are going into effect because the congressional “supercommittee” couldn’t agree on a consensus plan last year. But Obama is not helping matters by declining, so far, to offer details of what exactly would be cut next year if nothing is done. This week the administration promised to exempt military pay and benefits from the cuts, but has offered no further guidance.
For those keeping score at home (and watching for blame-shifting) here are the Georgia members on the hook as voting for the sugar-coated Satan sandwich that led to the current panic: Isakson, Barrow, Bishop, Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell; Rep. Hank Johnson, D-DeKalb; Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta; and Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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73 comments Add your comment
hiram
August 2nd, 2012
11:24 pm
Look before I leap…
August 2nd, 2012
10:53 pm
@hiram
‘I was not indicating that China would attack. I was indicating the exact opposite.”
I was actually responding to td’s nonsense.
Eli
August 2nd, 2012
11:35 pm
Shielding local federal projects…typical behavior of a sitting Member of Congress.
Ever wonder why spending cuts are so difficult to accomplish?
Look before I leap...
August 2nd, 2012
11:36 pm
@td
Regarding intelligence when it comes to the military, just how many years did YOU serve in our armed forces?
.
td
August 2nd, 2012
11:59 pm
Look before I leap…
August 2nd, 2012
11:36 pm
@td
Regarding intelligence when it comes to the military, just how many years did YOU serve in our armed forces?
And that matters how? Are you trying to say that only people that served are experts in military matters? If so then I can sure show you some Generals in history that did not know the head from their tail about how to execute a battle. Does George B. McClellan in the peninsula Or John Bell Hood at Franklin ring a bell?
Attack Dog
August 3rd, 2012
3:50 am
Why should Obama give the knucklehead-in-the-sand Dixiecrats any “guidance” on military spending cuts? They haven’t taken his advice on anything before! But here is a secret, everything is on the table except for troop pay and benefits, like all those projects the military said they didn’t want over the past 10-years but Dixiecrats stuck them in the budget anyway.
Attack Dog
August 3rd, 2012
3:54 am
Less Dixiecrats forget, the reason the Budget Control Act passed was because the Gang of Four guaranteed the failure of Simpson-Bowles, and the Dixiecrats forced themselves into putting the budget reduction on the table in order to vote for the debt ceiling increase. Red Dogs chasing their tails.
seabeau
August 3rd, 2012
4:58 am
China is our country’s greatest threat! All bases not involved in thwarting this evil should be closed!!
Buckhead Boy
August 3rd, 2012
5:25 am
In this regard, the Republican belief system is consistent. If everyone in civil society running around with a firearm makes members of that society safer, then the capability of insinuating ourselves militarily throughout the world makes the nation safer. Note that I didn’t say “logical”, merely “consistent”.
Now, here’s where their consistency comes apart. For three years they’ve been telling us that government spending on infrastructure creates no jobs in the private sector (civil construction), but now they’re telling us that the required reduction in government spending will result in the loss of more than a million jobs in the private sector (defense contractors). They’ve told us that the loss of teachers, firefifighters, etc. is a sacrifice that we must make, but that the loss of DoD civilians would be unthinkable.
Sequestration would return us to the 2006 level of defense spending. That permitted the Republicans to go full bore on one unnecessary foreign war and to dabble in others; and that ought to be enough for them when they are insisting that the must vulnerable among us must do with less.
Eustis
August 3rd, 2012
7:03 am
The Republicans made their bed when they refused to “compromise” on a budget deal.
Now they get to sleep in it.
Not only did McPherson and Gillem close, but also the NAS Atlanta @ Dobbins and the Navy Supply School in Athens.
Get us out of Afghanistan and Iraq (yes, we’re still spending Billions there).
Eustis
August 3rd, 2012
7:06 am
I see Benning, Stewart, Robins, St Marys, and Gordon as relatively safe. Moody, MCLB in Albany, Reserve, and National Guardwill be on the chopping block.
Edmund Ruffin
August 3rd, 2012
7:11 am
It is hypocritical for DefSec Panetta to talk about hurting military readiness. His and his worthless piece of human debris fellow democrats have already done it with forcing the military to take sodomites, the last round of base closures, unending deployments, and keeping troops in the middle east forever.
Techfan
August 3rd, 2012
7:23 am
Duke’s way off. Look up “Starve the Beast” and you’ll see it’s Grover Norquist and the GOP that want to bankrupt the nation.
TiredOfIt
August 3rd, 2012
7:30 am
Romney’s plan; another tax cut for the rich. That will fix it!
Eustis
August 3rd, 2012
7:34 am
Edmund Ruffin
In this case the Administration was handed a “tar-baby”. Once you got it, it’s not easy to let go.
As Thomas Jefferson once said about slavery; “We have a wolf by the ear”.
hiram
August 3rd, 2012
8:23 am
“Tax havens: Super-rich ‘hiding’ at least $21trillion”
…$21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000 billion.
…the super-rich move money around the globe through an “industrious bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries.”The lost tax revenues implied by our estimates is huge. It is large enough to make a significant difference to the finances of many countries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097
If bums like Romney payed their taxes you wouldn’t be having this discussion…
td
August 3rd, 2012
8:31 am
hiram
August 3rd, 2012
8:23 am
“f bums like Romney payed their taxes you wouldn’t be having this discussion…”
Same crap as you libs attempted to do with Deal. Make false accusations about everything under the sun and see if anything sticks. Romney has been running for President for 10 years, if there was any truth that he did anything illegally then it would have come out by now or someone from the Holder justice department would have prosecuted him.
More nasty campaigning because Obama wants to do anything other then talking about his record.
TiredOfIt
August 3rd, 2012
8:45 am
“Obama wants to do anything other then talking about his record.”
++
Romney obfuscates and/or flip-flops on is record and future plans.
td
August 3rd, 2012
8:49 am
TiredOfIt
August 3rd, 2012
8:45 am
“Obama wants to do anything other then talking about his record.”
++
Romney obfuscates and/or flip-flops on is record and future plans
This is an election about an incumbent and it is all about if the person has done a good enough job or not to deserve a second term. Obama does not want the American people to take a hard look at this question.
HR Pufnstuf
August 3rd, 2012
9:00 am
This is a little off topic, but you would think that since Georgia reaps the economic benefits of several military bases, the state legislature would exempt military retirees of having their pensions taxed–just like several other states do.
Junior Samples
August 3rd, 2012
9:05 am
Sounds like duke is a Beck U grad.
First, spin the conspiracy wheel of theory.
Next, utilize degrees of separation to make it remotely plausible to the gullible.
Extra points if you can link Islam, Communism, Socialism, etc…
Bonus Round: Link Kevin Bacon into the sixth degree.
Bill
August 3rd, 2012
10:07 am
For the record, the US has 11 carriers, with another one being mothballed – not 20. As for as the GA bases, there is one that needs to go – Kings Bay. It was built as a tribute to Jimmy Carter and Sam Nunn; can only support 8 subs, since it is an inlet and not true harbor, and the Army Corps of Engineers holds their breath everytime even a near miss hurricane comes along – it would fill the inlet with sand and wreck the base that is mostly wetlands.
Miss J
August 3rd, 2012
12:04 pm
Ten Ways to Balance the US Govt Budget.
1. Close the tax loop holes for the rich.
2. Cut some of the entitlemnet programs for the poor.
3. Overhaul (change) the Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security systems.
5. Close (and or merge operations) some of our military bases.
6. Stop the Oil and Gas subsidies.
7. Limit our Foreign Aid
8. Adopt a flat tax system.
9. Place term limits on Congress
10. Stop the various bail outs.
Both parties don’t want to make these tough changes – both want to pander to their base……
We need strong leadership on both sides of the isle….HELP US LORD………
Jon Lester
August 3rd, 2012
1:09 pm
I have news for you, td. Russia today has a far more inclusive and democratic society than Afghanistan ever will. Meanwhile, the only net result of the last 20 years of our overseas adventurism has been the establishment of new Islamic republics.
I could try to tell you why China is not an expansionist threat to anyone, but I think the logic would simply be lost on you.