A surprising (and little discussed) effort by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D – NY) to defund the Afghan War was brought before the House of Representatives yesterday, and unfortunately fell well short of its goal, with a 98-331 failure. The vote is still interesting on a number of fronts, however.
The vote would have attached an amendment to the budget which would reduce the Afghan War spending from the $100+ billion it currently costs annually to a level of $10 billion, which is the amount the Pentagon insists it would cost to withdraw the troops from the nation.
Notably, however, the vote was surprisingly close amongst Democratic Congressmen, with 91 voting in favor of ending the occupation to 99 voting against. It was the Republican side which saw overwhelming rejection, with only 7 GOP Congressmen voting to end the war (Reps. Campbell, Coble, Duncan, Johnson, Jones, Paul and Rohrabacher).
Perhaps the biggest disappointment was that the freshmen “Tea Party” Congressmen, who were reportedly so keen on reducing the budget deficit, voted unanimously in favor of continuing the occupation, despite the clear and dramatic savings that ending the war would have provided.
What a deceitful bunch of parasites we have in rhe House.;
So much for the Tea Party having a foreign policy any different from the Republican NeoCon establishment.
That where the graft and corruption is, the Pentagon and they don't want to miss out.
The tea party is not about stopping unrepresentative taxes and reducing deficit spending. Rather its about defunding all public government social function for the purposes of defaulting our country's management to private corporate administration.
Implying that it not already is.
Right on marty. Where are Justin's Tea Partiers?
The Tea Party is not where it's at:
http://mises.org/daily/5055/Conservatives-versus-…
"Just as commentators and intellectuals have trouble understanding liberty as a theme in domestic politics, some people just can't get it in foreign policy. I noticed a strange lack of celebration on many conservative blogs and sites. There is far more handwringing about "instability" than cheers for the people.
If the Egyptian case is any indication, we can look forward to more fretting and puzzling and even opposition from the American Right. The angst-filled view on Egypt began with Glenn Beck, the most influential voice on the tea-party Right, a man who last year celebrated Hayek's Road to Serfdom and put it on the bestseller list.
In a YouTube video, he warned that these revolts were not what they seemed. They are really the working out of a conspiracy of Muslim fanatics insufficiently appreciative of the US-installed and maintained dictator. It was shockingly clear: he supported the regime over the people, the US empire over self-determination. From his account, one would think that a protest for liberty was terrorism. Which may give us some indication of what terrorism means to him and others like him.
Following Beck, there was a rising ethos on the American Right that looked down on the protests, regretting them and even hoping for a full-scale and murderous crackdown. At the CPAC convention on the very weekend that Mubarak fell, Ron Paul was the only major speaker to even address the subject, much less celebrate the freedom movement.
At the bottom of the heap was Ann Coulter at CPAC, who expressed no love for the Egyptian people. She was specifically asked about the reality that the Mubarak regime was jailing journalists. Her response: "I think there should be more jailed journalists." The audience cheered."
Nice to have my belief confirmed that the American so-called "Right" leadership is overwhelmingly a bunch of fascists. Kudos to the seven Repub congressmen who voted to defund the war (and Nadler and the 91 Democrats, too.)
What is needed – for EVERY member of the House to be obligated to send a son or daughter to Afghanistan. Better yet – EVERY member of the Congress needs to be sent on a one way trip to Afghanistan!