As the Colorado Springs Gazette's Tom Roeder reports:
Congressman Doug Lamborn is pushing a plan that would cut federal programs including Social Security, Medicare and crop insurance subsides by $30 billion a year so defense spending can be increased.
The Colorado Springs Republican said Tuesday that the cuts, including a $20 billion annual reduction in cost of living increases to Social Security, may entice fiscal conservatives to back a bigger Pentagon budget – an extra $108 billion over two years.
"My hope is that it is received very well, especially by folks on the budget committee, especially (Republican budget chairman) Paul Ryan," Lamborn said.
As the representative for Colorado's (and indeed one of the nation's) most military-heavy congressional districts, Rep. Doug Lamborn is always on the lookout for new ways to increase defense spending–even when doing so is incongruous with his alleged conservative principles, and even when it is politically a just plain terrible idea. In this case, Lamborn wants to reduce future spending on Social Security and Medicare, and directly appropriate the "savings" to the defense budget. The Gazette's Roeder reports that Lamborn is hoping for "a degree of political cover" due the fact that President Barack Obama has at times offered a similar "chained CPI" scheme to Republicans in failed budget negotiations.
What Lamborn doesn't seem to understand is that there's a huge difference between "grand bargain" negotiations, where line items dear to both sides are put on the table, and his simple, transactional proposal to cut Social Security and Medicare to increase defense spending. Congressional Democrats staunchly opposed Obama's willingness to consider the "chained CPI," and polling consistently shows the public does not want Social Security and Medicare to be cut this way–or for that matter any way. In the end, it didn't happen–at least not yet.
Now comes Lamborn, who wants a "chained CPI" at Christmastime–and not for any budgetary grand bargain, but to spend more on the military? What a delightful story to tell Grandma! We don't think Democrats could cast "conservative values" in a harsher relief if they tried. Lamborn's ultra-safe seat means he can't be personally held accountable, but as a GOP holiday brand ambassador, maybe Democrats should be okay with that.
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Lamborn needs to start cutting, and cutting the MIC first and foremost.
It's bloated. We spend 100 times more than the nearest country. It's way past time to cut down and refocus on domestic issues. Lamborn is a moron, and needs to be kicked out. Fortunately there's a sane Dem that's still as militant as him but knows that it needs to be cut back. Hell, the MILITARY has been telling the Congress for years that it NEEDS to cut back on crap. Over 60 billion dollars worth of worthless surplus in military equipment sits in the boneyard in Davis Monthan, AFB, in Tucson, Arizona. I've been there, so I've seen it. I see the waste of billion of dollars of unused or unscrapped equipment sitting in the boneyard collecting dust.
It's way past time to stop the MIC and start focusing on domestic issues like unemployment, homelessness, and the general welfare (remember the Constitution?) of the people. Not the 1%'ers.
So Lamborn needs to go down, and down big along the rest of the Rethuglican representatives who held the government hostage in the name of the almighty dollar and no healthcare for everyone except the 1%'ers.
For that, for 300 generations, the Republicans and the right-wing dingbats are forever cursed.
+300
Lamborn is the Honey Boo Boo of Congress…does anyone take this guy seriously?
+1
There is no more fatty pork than the MIC and Doug Lamborn loves it. Loves the MIC pork. Overpriced consultants feeding at the taxpayer trough, that's what Doug Lamborn supports.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/11/8-5-trillion-taxpayer-money-doled-congress-pentagon-since-1996-never-accounted.html
No one has ever accused Rep. Lamborn of being particularly astute, bright, or any more intelligent than a toad (to which I am aware), but he does occaisonaly pretend to be fiscally conservative. He's not. He's a pork-laddling big government special-interest funded tool.
Bless his pointy little head, he knows which side his bread's buttered on. As long as he keeps frying up that baon, CD 5 will keep sending him back to Washington. Maybe we need a "chained" something to restrain the defense budget, especially now that Georgie's Cowboy Adventures are winding down.There must be a bright, heavily decorated military veteran Democrat somewhere down in the 5th who can give this clown a run for his money.
Edwin Edwards, the four-term Governor of Louisiana said once of his race against incumbent Governor, David Treen
That rule may hold true in Louisiana – I'm not sure even that would end Lamborn's political career in CD-5. They "love 'em some Doug" south of Monument Hill.
Retired Air Force Major Gen. Irv Halter is running. It is a very difficult district for a Dem, but Halter should have the best chance of any Dem who has run in recent memory.
http://www.halterforcongress.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irv_Halter
Hope he does better than Jay Fawcett did. He got his clock cleaned and he taught at the AFA after retiring from service.
As did Hal Bidlack, who also taught at the AFA after retiring from the service. Both good men. Yes, it is difficult.
Bennet (along with Obama and the rest of the DC "centrists",) favors the chained cpi. Better clean the D's house first.
Better crush the GOTP first. Chained CPI would be the least of it with them in charge.
I'm skeptical that the gop would touch SS and Medicare if they were in a position to do so. They, unlike the dems, listen to their base first and foremost and their base wouldn't be happy with cuts in those areas.
I'm pretty disgusted with establishment dems at the moment so I tend to be pretty cynical. The GOTP is collapsing under the weight of its ideology at the moment. I think the Democratic Party has its own problems and needs to stand up for DP values, not the least of which would be to preserve DP programs.
But wait, didn't the Guvs just say Democrats opposed it?
Does the guv speak for all dems? Someone better let Obama know.
Lamborn represents the one district in our state that is the most dependent on government welfare in the form of military spending. Of course he is going to stick his snout in the taxpayer trough and get as much as his greedy little face can scarf up all the while pontificating about how "Pro-Life" he is. Fucking phony.
And yet he went along with the rest of his Tea party collegues by voting against reopening the govt AND raising the debt ceiling in Oct. Seriously, I thought the man would vote to reopen the govt since the shut down had a huge toll on Colorado Springs. And yet, voters will still reelect him in 2014, myself not included.