In my previous blog about the Republican Pledge to America I discussed why I think that the Democratic Congress must be retained. This blog is a follow up that reaches my same conclusion for another reason.
The Republican Pledge to America states that they pledge to place "hard caps" on all discretionary spending. I interpret the phrase "hard caps" to mean specific dollar amounts that cannot be exceeded. As previously discussed in my blog discretionary spending includes all military expenditures, which is about 50% of all discretionary spending. I am for a hard cap on all military expenditures and if I believed the Republican Congressional leadership were truthful I would accept it as usual political propaganda. The Republicans, however , have shown that the words of their Congressional leaders are often lies, and the pledge to hard cap all new discretionary spending I believe is also a lie. They initiated two wars that were neither capped nor budgeted, and are responsible for at least 30% of our countries present debt.
Their meaningless words in their "Pledge" are contradicted in the very same Pledge when another section pledges to "Fully Fund Missile Defense". The Republican Congressional statement on page 39 of The Republican Pledge to America is: "There is real concern that while the threat from Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles could materialize as early as 2015, the government's missile defense policy is not projected to cover the U.S. homeland until 2020. We will work to ensure critical funding is restored to protect the U.S. homeland and our allies from missile threats from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea."
Leaving aside the technological feasibility of destroying an intercontinental ballistic missile with another ballistic missile, analogous to shooting down a bullet with another bullet, the required research and development program cannot be "hard capped" as the Republicans promise they will do for all new discretionary spending.
Research and development are, as the two descriptive words mean, the exploration and eventual development of designs, processes, materials, and manufacture of a missile capable of destroying an intercontinental ballistic missile both probably traveling over 16,000 miles per hour.
Billions of research and development dollars have already been spent since the late 1980's on anti-missile defense and the technical solution is unfulfilled. It may not be possible to accomplish and the cost of the R&D work cannot be closely estimated. Probably well over one trillion dollars will be spent to just determine the feasibility, and another one trillion to implement the technology if feasible. The Republican Pledge to America to hard cap all new discretionary spending would require a cap in excess of 2 trillion dollars for this one program and still may yield nothing. I have participated in and managed numerous private and government funded R&D programs in my professional career and can speak with authority on this subject. The Republican pledges are contradictory and ludicrous for this reason alone.
Again the Republican Pledge to America tries to fool the American people with jargon and pledges that are impossible to honor. This has been the Republican Congressional and Tea-Party tactic to regain control of Congress. Promise pie in the sky and criticize everything the Obama administration proposes. I think the Congressman Boehner Republican Congress will cause more chaos and impasse if they were to control congress.
The Republicans in Congress have uniformly been opposed in the Senate and House to every attempt by the Obama administration and most of Congressional Democrats to enact any legislation including health reform, financial reform, consumer protection reform, and even extending unemployment insurance to the many millions of Americans who are unemployed because of the recession caused by the Republican dominated Congress during the Bush administration.
The Republicans now favor maintaining tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and oppose tax cuts for middle America unless the ultra-rich get tax cuts also. They do not care if hundreds of billions of dollars are added to our debt by so doing yet state that they will impose hard caps. Republicans in Congress are not the only liars and hypocrites,Democrats have their share, but I think that the Republican-Tea Part leaders are the masters of lies and hypocrisy.The Republican party has proven their opposition to all progressive Congressional legislation and Republicans must not be voted to control Congress. The Democratic Party Congress must be retained for any semblance of orderly governance and progress.
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