POST ELECTION CATHARSIS-PART 2

In a previous column on this blog, I expressed concern over some of the people and groups that were rooting for Barack Obama in the presidential election. I suggested that if brutal dictators, fanatical terrorist groups and rogue nations supported Obama that maybe he wasn’t our best choice. Now that I have seen the light, I’m feeling pretty foolish. Because all these nut-jobs like our future president, he will be able to effect some real change.

Congressperson Barney Frank, noted defense expert in rearguard operations, has been advocating a 25% reduction in defense spending. The esteemed Ms. Frank may get his way with a President Obama. During the campaign, Mr. Obama outlined his plan to generate real savings in defense spending. Some of the salient points:

“I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.”Since it takes billions in investments to actually develop a “proven”
missile defense system this should save a bunch.

“I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future
combat systems”Do we really need all these high tech and expensive systems? Maybe we
can develop our own low cost IED program under the guidance of demolition
expert Bill Ayers.

“I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. I will not
develop new nuclear weapons.”I see where the Russians recently tested a new class of ICBM’s. The
Iranians are hell bent on developing nuclear weapons and of course there
are the Chinese and those whacky North Koreans. Seems like the perfect
time for us to lead by example and shut our nuclear program down.

I realize that many people believe that now is not the time to slash defense spending. Because of the myriad threats we face, they think we need to maintain our military superiority. Might I suggest that these people are underestimating President Elect Obama.

Thanks to Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter, peace through appeasement has gotten a bad rap. Maybe it just takes a special man to make appeasement work. Because of Barack Obama’s magnetic personality and unsurpassed oratory skills, we will be able to achieve “peace for our time” with a defense budget comparable to France’s. Who cares if the demographics of the Middle East change a little bit.

President Elect Obama has a plan for all the money we will be saving on defense. In a July 2008 speech, Mr. Obama announced his plan for a “Civilian National Security Force.” He stated: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
The numbers are a bit vague but let’s make some assumptions. The 2008 Department of Defense budget was approximately 480 billion. With the cuts President Elect Obama is proposing, I think it is reasonable to think that he could get this down to 300 billion. Using government math, this means he only needs to come up with an additional 120 billion for his “Civilian National Security Force.”

Some people might question the need for a massive new security force when we already have local and state police, the FBI, DHS, DEA and the NSA. According to his web site, he will establish a Classroom Corps, a Health Corps, a Clean Energy Corps, a Veterans Corps and a Homeland Security Corps. I think Mr. Obama is talking about a different kind of security. With his brilliant theory of “mandatory volunteerism,” Mr. Obama is proposing to “Require 100 hours of service in college.” He will grant a $4000 tax credit to those “volunteers” for an effective wage of $40 an hour.

I’ll admit that I’m not real clear on what all these “corps” will be doing but wouldn’t it be enlightening to be educated on the trans-fat content of your Big Mac meal by some bright eyed “Health Corps” volunteer the next time you are at McDonalds? And won’t you be filled with hope when the young “Clean Energy Corps” volunteer demands that you buy carbon credits as you are filling up your gas guzzling SUV?
Yes, change is coming!