The Army is not The Military

The Army is Part of The Military.

Listening to the latest “You wanted Cuts? Fine… we’re going to get rid of all the police, firemen and teachers!” rhetoric from The Current Administration I have noticed the Media is intentionally, or unintentionally because they don’t have the education to perform their function, confusing The Army with entirety of The Military.

Chuck Hagel is proposing a reduction in the size of The Army to pre-WWII levels.  Not “The whole Military”.

If you’ve been here before you already know WORDS MEAN THINGS.

But Meaning has no place when the intent is to inflame.

The proposed “Cuts” being threatened for The Army might not be a bad idea. While it could impair my sincere, and long-held, desire to Annex Mexico by rolling Armor from Ft. Bliss, there is no doubt that our MILITARY, which The Army is a part of, wastes a Crap-load of our taxpayer dollars.  I will also take this opportunity to remind anyone who’s bored enough to read this blog that the “Cut’s” in question are composed of a mere 5% cut in THE GROWTH of the budgets… and they are Fungible.  Don’t know what that means?  Look it up.

(As an aside, I can personally attest to the waste… reflected by the explosions heard near Military Bases, Forts etc. in Late September (End of the Government Fiscal Year) because all of the unused ordinance has to be used (destroyed) in order to avoid getting your budget for splody things cut.  There’s nothing wrong with the Ordinance… it just has to be used.  It is a bizarre, if not profoundly stupid, way to manage other people’s money, unless you don’t really care about other people’s money.  And that’s just one small example… there’s an entire $34 Million Dollar Military Base we built in Afghanistan and never occupied… the list goes on.)

But Why the intentional, giving the Media the benefit of the doubt, confusion?

This is nothing more than a specifically crafted message to reach out and freak out a constituency whose primary identity was formed when they were between the ages of 18 to 22… And, that’s how they vote.  (Full disclosure: I have a couple of these friends and I love them.  But single issue voters of all Flavors seem to transcend Reason.)

The Left knows full well that the above described voters, while singularly supporting the automotive decal industry, vote almost always against Socialists… Almost always…  The Left also knows that should they be able to reduce the size of The Military they can claim to have “Reduced the Size of Government!” which was a tactic Bill Clinton used when he was President.  His Administration talking heads would often follow that statement up with “That’s what you Conservatives Want Right?”  No additional comment was ever allowed by the Mainstream Interviewer…

It is an issue designed to disrupt.

This is what is called a “Wedge Issue”.  Why?  Because it is design to drive a Wedge between those of us who recognize our Government, which The Military is a part of, wastes our money and those who tend to vote with us who believe The Military, which The Army is a part of, spends each and every dollar with the focused attention of a Wizened Miser.

In the end this is just an attempt by the Progressives to divide an angry voting base looking forward to nailing Liberals this election cycle while desperately trying to find issues to run on when Obama Care is their greatest success.

The fact that the Mainstream Press is playing along, as usual, with the narrative desired by the Left is no surprise… just Annoying.

Watching certain individuals out there consuming this message without any critical thought is also no surprise… just Depressing.

Having those who I respect lend to the confusion is also, unfortunately, no surprise… just Sobering.

And, I Hate to be Sober.

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Until the Clock Runs Backwards

…nothing is really being done.

I want to take the opportunity of “the Sequester” to remind all of us that nothing positive is being accomplished until the Debt Clock begins, and continues to, run backwards.

If the Sequester occurs, it is a time for celebration as it would mark the first nod to fiscal sanity.  But it is just a nod… a recognition that we are in deep trouble.  The Sequester would need to be multiplied forty times in order to genuinely begin to address our countries problems.

So raise a beer… but after you finish it immediately get back to work.

Remember, the politicians have an uncanny ability to take a very tiny step forward and take two great leaps backwards.

Don’t start trusting them now…  they’re going to try to keep playing us for fools.

(Don’t forget,  It’s the Debt Dummy!  “Debt” and “Deficit” are two very different words.  Politicians on both sides of the aisle will try to use them interchangeably in order to keep you confused.  In turn this keeps you voting the way they want.  Your only concern should be reducing the Debt.  Reducing the Debt is the only thing that matters, because by doing so the Deficit is necessarily taken care of… it will be gone.  Simply reducing the Deficit only allows for our continued drive forward into the Fiscal Oblivion.  Focusing on the Deficit is meaningless at this point in our history.)

Sequester is just one piece of a 1000 piece puzzle.

The Enormous Fear of Nothing

This latest exercise in creating Hysteria around the “Sequester” otherwise known as “decreasing the growth of spending” is fascinating.

Sitting on an airplane at 30,000 feet I had the luxury of listening without interruption to two individuals and a soldier talk about sequester behind me.  I gather one of the women was the mother of the soldier and the other was a contractor out of San Diego who handles military contracts as a profession.

Let me explain… it is typically not my desire to spy on those who don’t deserve it, but I left my copy of Wealth of Nations with some friends when we parted ways, and I was bored.  Idle hands and all…

So there I was listening to why the sequester was going to end the world.  Or at least destroy the hopes and dreams of our soldiers.  Seriously.

The young man sitting between the two women, after talking about some gun, and explosive, related issues that would have had him removed from the plane if it were still parked at the jet-way (I thought this was funny.  I have no problem with anything he said, I only cringed slightly at what reaction he would have received had they been able to do anything to him.  Too late at that point though.) went on to say how pay was being cut for the National Guard because deployment was being decreased “due to the sequester”.  This is when I really took notice.

There was a time not so long ago that the deployment of the National Guard into an active combat zone was being decried as some sort of heresy.  In fact, many of us had to remind those around us… and especially those on the evening news… that National Guard troops were used in combat situations as a matter of course, Vietnam being a relatively recent example. Then I realized that we are reacting to a “new norm”.  A normal that says National Guard troops are active soldiers and any reduction in their deployment is a “cut” in pay, not returning to the status they are supposed to experience.  Bizarre.  I will offer up the detail that these two women were old enough to know this, and both should have enough experience with the military to understand this as well.

The young soldier then went on to say that “the sequester” would probably ruin his chances to get promoted and he would have to go into civilian life… even then he thought the sequester was a bad idea because he was looking forward to a job he had lined up, should he have to get out, as a contractor supplying infrastructure consulting to the Afghanistan population.

The mother of this soldier felt that sequester was a bad idea because we should “never cut defense”… “ever”.  “Ever.”

The contractor said she thought we simply don’t pay our soldiers enough and all of that money should never be removed from the budget because it’s reducing the pay of our service people.  (While it is profound how quickly in relative terms “entitlement” becomes the norm… even among those we respect, that’s not my point in this post.  So I’m bypassing it for now.)

This behind my back conversation went on for about 30 minutes.

Never once was there a discussion about the “cuts” simply being a reduction in spending… on an already bloated area of government.  Bloated exactly because of the above attitudes leaving it in a place of leisure where it never must do more with less.

Never once was there Reason inserted into the exchange of the proper function of National Guard troops and the difference between them versus active duty personnel.

Never once was the observation made that the money being “cut” had nothing to do with the rate of pay our soldiers receive.

Folks, if you don’t think that the Mass Media has an effect on the opinions of those sitting on their couches as well as those young people serving our country you are deluding yourself.  As we all know, Denial is not a river in Egypt, Denial is what prevents us from getting out there and engaging these people in cogent conversation.

(As a disclaimer… I did not take my own advice here as I was directly in front of these three.  Had I been in a position to gently intrude I would have, in fact, I often do.)

All of this is important because any one of these three would have the “credentials” to be held up as authoritative by ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, FOX, CNN, etc.  One was a soldier… one was the mother of a soldier… and one was a military contractor. Holy Crap!

Their conversation ended as we got off the plane with the young soldier stating “I wish our politicians would just all get along and get things done.” To the nodding agreement of the other two.  I just felt sad inside.  Very sad.  I desperately want to explain why that is exactly what they should not do… to explain Bipartisanshitt to them all, but it was time to get off the plane.  Too bad.

It is these types of “points of view” which have elected people like McCain et al, and have brought us to the brink of catastrophe we now find our selves in.  They are what passes for “well-educated” on The View.

When Democrats are complaining about the Debt Clock being displayed during budget debates it cannot be any more evident that there are few left who care about pulling us out of this fiscal nose dive.

It’s time to rally… and reach out.  Now!  before the next set of elections.

It’s exactly the opportunity that “the sequester” offers which must be used to explain where we are and what is happening to us.  And most importantly the “how and why” it has happened.

I might actually have to set my beer down.

An Open Letter from your Congressional Republicans:

Dear Mr. President,

We’re ready to help you fix your Sequester Budget plan.

And, since you have already received your desired tax increases of which all Americans are experiencing right now we would be willing to aid you in figuring out how to reduce spending in a better, and more balanced, way than your current proposal dictates.

If you have any ideas we will gladly listen to them because we recognize how poorly thought out your Sequester plan was. We also recognize, as we are sure you do, that our country is being crushed by a rapidly growing 16-Trillion Dollar Debt created by out-of-control spending.  We know that both parties have participated in this Debt which is why we agree with you that both parties must take part in reducing it quickly before it destroys our Country along with the American Dream.

Considering the Urgency of addressing this Unprecedented Emergency we understand the Necessity of not delaying immediate action.  Because if not Now, When?  If not Us, Who?

Trust us, we recognize how difficult it can be dealing with those in your own party.  You point this out to us regularly.  That’s why we wanted to send you this open letter to publicly show our unified support.  We hope it helps you rally your party members to embrace solutions during your time of need.  Please beg your fellow Democrats for Bipartisanship, if for no other reason than the future of women, our children and minorities.

We are with you Mr. President!

All of us have cell phones and promise to answer.  So call us may be.

Sincerely,

The Congressional Republicans

PS. Happy Valentines Day XOXO

Cliff Diving

I remember my first time diving from the “high” board into the “deep end”. It was terrifying. However, once I did it, things changed. The act became less terrifying with each occurrence.

Is this what the spending addicts in Washington are actually afraid of?

Has the explosion of an already bloated government left us scared and shaking on the ladder? When you look closely at the proposed cuts to all departments associated with the ‘Fiscal Cliff”, or “Sequestration”, it becomes clear that they are far from scary and should really serve only as a starting point. (Not even a good starting point… but at least a starting point.)

Will government jobs be in jeopardy?  Yes.

Will government programs that are duplicated throughout our military taking focus away from more important projects be cut?  Yes.

Will it force our armed forces to rate in earnest what programs are worth spending taxpayer dollars on and which are not?  Yes.

I address the military specifically because that seems to be where the majority of “fear” is being generated in regard to what amount to be miniscule cuts.  When I say miniscule, what I really mean is ridiculously small in comparison to our catastrophic spending problem leading to our obese, soon to be fatal, debt load.

In case any of you are shaking your heads in my wanton disregard for the serious ramifications of “cutting the military” all I can say is… remember that money is fungible. If there is truly a program that must be saved, it will be saved.

So this brings me back to my original question…

Is Washington and all of our Politicians that dwell there afraid of “Going over the cliff” because it will not be a very big deal? Are they afraid that the American people will experience the aftermath and say to themselves “What’s the problem?” to be closely followed by “Let’s keep going!”

If we are serious about cutting spending this is a good start.

In regard to taxes…

If the Leftists are serious in their assertion that taxing the crap out of everyone “promotes growth”, as they claim that it did under Clinton, then let them fall on that sword.  (I was there, and it was a paper tiger in the name of “the tech bubble” combined with a mature House of Representatives that produced what appeared to be a surplus…) but I’m willing to give them a helpful push as sometimes the blade gets stuck…

There is nothing in government that can’t be corrected quickly under the crushing burden of a declining economy aside from new entitlements and abdication of authority from one branch to another.

When the economic health of the United States plummets… we will need heroes, of a fiscal conservative variety.  And, we will need a whole lot of them.

It was cold the morning I climbed the eleven steps and peered over the top of that diving board. Shivering I walked to the very end and peered over the edge. My memory always makes it higher than any cliff I have dived off since…