Sen. Kyl says would quit US debt panel if defense cut

[jefferson_dem]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican member of the "super committee" deficit-reduction panel in Congress on Thursday said he would quit the panel if new defense spending cuts are considered.

Kyl made the comments in a session sponsored by conservative think tanks including Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. He made the comments shortly after the super committee held its first meeting in an effort to find $1.2 trillion in new government savings over 10 years.

"I'm off of the committee if we're going to talk about further defense spending," Kyl said he has told super committee colleagues.

A $917 billion deficit-reduction deal enacted in early August included $350 billion in security program cuts, which includes defense spending.

If the super committee cannot come to a deal on at least $1.2 trillion in additional savings, automatic spending cuts would be triggered starting in 2013. Those cuts would be split evenly between domestic programs and defense. (Reporting by David Alexander)



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/usa-debt-defense-kyl-idUSN1E7871FL20110908

[glowing]

1. Good, let him quit.

[Telly Savalas]

57. yeah, anybody that's enough of a moron to think that there is no financial waste in the military

has no business being on that committee

[qb]

2. I hope that's a promise.

[sharp_stick]

3. Yet another good reason

to do it.

Hypocritical pricks like Kyl should be punted anyway.

[NewJeffCT]

4. don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out

asshole

[MurrayDelph]

38. His is one of the cases where the door SHOULD hit him in the ass

even though it could break his nose that way.

[asjr]

5. Well, go ahead, take your ball and go home.

[Downwinder]

6. That's a good start. What would it take to get him to resign from the Senate?

[Jumping John]

7. Even as the War Contracting Committee report was just released!!!! n/t

[UpInArms]

8. don't let the door hit ya ....

n/t

[closeupready]

9. Oh, well, if it's that simple, we know which direction to take.

Defense cuts, anyone? :rofl:

[plumbob]

40. LARGE ones, please!

Who ELSE would quit for this reason?


Satisfy their wish!

[stlsaxman]

10. okay, then- CUT DEFENSE!!!

:bounce:

[bongbong]

11. Super-duper committee needed!

Obviously, the super-committee is not small enough. We need to make a "super-duper" committee. According to the repigs it should be composed of two businessmen, like say the Cock Brothers. :sarcasm:

[dtexdem]

12. All the more reason to do so.

Hey, maybe the Repukes will quit en masse. ;-)

[TwilightGardener]

13. A threat or a promise?

[Lasher]

21. A lie.

He's saying that so that the MIC will lavish more money on him. He will be ordered by these masters to remain on the committee and he will obey.

[TwilightGardener]

25. Yeah, most likely.

[Salviati]

34. it came out of his mouth didn't it...

I'd sooner trust anything coming out of his other end, at least it wouldn't be disguising what it is...

[emulatorloo]

14. Sounds like a plan. Get his ass out of there, cut defense ASAP

[rurallib]

16. one of the best reasons ever to cut defense.

maybe if they cut deep enough he'll quit the senate totally.

[julian09]

49. He isn't running again, so he is out in 2013

dems should get someone that could win that seat.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Buh bye and then we win! n/t

[panader0]

17. "Defense" spending is really "offense" spending

and is almost half of our budget. That half is roughly equal to the sum of all of the rest of the world's spending on "defense".
It is common sense of the most basic kind to start the cuts there.

[Roy Rolling]

19. right you are

"military spending" is more like it... until the U.S. is attacked it is not defense spending.

[Roy Rolling]

18. Yes!

See, atheists....there is a God! :rofl:

And for the too serious, this is a joke . . .

[GodlessBiker]

20. Oh please, oh please, oh please.

[ThoughtCriminal]

24. Cat Fud

[TwilightGardener]

27. That still cracks me up--

:rofl:

[Moosepoop]

22. What happens if he quits?

Would his committee seat stay unfilled (leaving more Ds than Rs on the panel), or would the Rs get to select someone else to replace him? I hope for the former! :)

[jschurchin]

23. Cool. See ya asshole. nt

[av8rdave]

26. sounds like a win - win to me

[Fresh_Start]

28. Sounds like a challenge which should be met

enthusiastically

[russspeakeasy]

29. Excellent and take your butt buddy tom coburn with you...

:evilgrin: Come to think of it, I'm not even sure if tom (the weasel) coburn is on the committee, but take him anyway...

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

30. He must really have strong ties to MIC corporations.

Now is the time to come out swinging against the MIC.
I don't think we will ever get another chance.

[chelsea0011]

31. Quit now and do us all a favor

[Scuba]

32. I've no problem with that. Bye, bye. n/t

[Fuddnik]

33. I don't think he has anything to worry about.

We already know who's going to get the shit end of this stick.

[cstanleytech]

35. Kyl should just be removed since the whole point of this committee is for them to

discuss options be it raising taxes or cutting overspending and by being unwilling to discuss any cuts to defense kyl his proven himself unfit to serve, imo atleast.

[think]

36. Step on down Kyl. If you lack the that much common sense good riddens! ..nt

[Turbineguy]

37. Don't the door hit ya

where the Good Lord split ya!

[Bob Loblaw]

39. When I was a kid...

playing games with the other kids in the neighborhood there was always some kid who would threaten to quit and take his ball and go home if he didn't get his way. Everyone had their own ball so what we usually did was kick his ball as hard and as far as we could and use another ball while he went and got and it and usually capitulated in his demands. Sometimes he brought more than one ball. Maybe Kyl was that kid in his neighborhood. Maybe he just needs his balls kicked.

[Vinca]

41. Here we go. One by one they'll have their hissy fits unless they get their own way.

It was clear there wasn't one Republican among the ones nominated for this committee who would ever compromise on anything. The 3-ring circus resumes.

[AlbertCat]

42. Replace him with a Dem. A progressive Dem.

Who cares if he quits?

[Gman]

43. Adios MF

[BlueCollar]

44. Hasta la vista , Pendejo...n/t

[ladywnch]

45. if that's all it takes to get rid of him, I say we start with that! n/t

[maxsolomon]

46. he won't quit, and they won't cut defense

don't you people know that it's SACRED?

they'd rather kids go hungry than take a step back on the MIC.

[TroglodyteScholar]

47. Wow, two birds with one stone, then...? n/t

[workinclasszero]

48. Great! GTFO teabagger!

We need to pull out of 3 wars and cut our overseas military bases by 3/4's at least.

Damn teabaggers will push grandma off a cliff and steal her SS, NP but don't u dare cut anything military!

The rethugs are well paid my the weapons makers no doubt.

[brentspeak]

50. Bye!

[bloomington-lib]

51. Why did he agree to join it then. Everyone knew the cuts were supposed to be on the table

Quit now and let someone with a more open mind take the seat. Geesh, like little kids.

[cstanleytech]

66. Exactly, every option be it cuts or raising of taxes is supposedly to be on

the table as an option and kyl needs to pull his head out from his ass and be willing to negotiate even on potential cuts to defense assuming he doesnt die from suffocation due to a lack of oxygen first from having his head wedged up in there.

[wordpix]

52. bye, bye, I for one won't miss you, Kyl

these repugs are all for cutting EXCEPT the military, the nuke industry, oil and gas industry, coal industry, and of course, keeping endless tax cuts for the rich :grr:

[stockholmer]

53. pure madness

:mad:

[high density]

54. So the super committee is going poorly just like everything else

No surprise there.

[Major Hogwash]

55. Kyl is just a stupid fuckstick!

Why they even thought of putting him on that committee is beyond me.

[DRoseDARs]

56. If you're going to be all maudlin about it, how big a cut would it take for you to go kill yourself?

Seriously, what is with Republicans and being such whiny-ass titty babies? If you're this out-of-sorts now before anything has even been done, Senator Kryl, just quit now and stop wasting the taxpayers' money on your bullshit.

[tblue37]

58. Good riddance to bad rubbish. nt

[Auntie Bush]

59. Good riddance to shitty rubbage

[and-justice-for-all]

60. See ya wanker!!! nt

[politicasista]

61. Quit then

Boy bye.

[Jack Rabbit]

62. Don't let the door smack you in the ass on the way out, Senator

!!

[sarcasmo]

63. Typical republican, no morals. Social programs cuts OK, defense spending NO!

[quakerboy]

64. I am sure he has that in common with at least 7 out of the 12 members

Just guessing.

That said, the article is imprecise, in my opinion. When he says "further defense spending" does he mean more than the 50% that kicks in if they cannot come to agreement? Or does he mean more than is in effect right this second? Cause that makes a hell of a difference.

I fear that our best "realistic" option right now may be to push on the disagreements and let the auto trigger get pulled, because I have a hard time seeing the set of people making this deal coming to agreement on a less harmful version.

[boppers]

65. *Not intended to be factual statements

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/381484/april-12-2011/jon-kyl-tweets-not-intended-to-be-factual-statements

[Yon_Yonson]

67. Senator Threatens to Walk if Debt Panel Hits Defense .

Source: The Wall Street Journal: Politics

Senator Threatens to Walk if Debt Panel Hits Defense
By NATHAN HODGE SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

A Republican senator threatened to walk out on the special deficit-reduction supercommittee if other members push for new cuts in defense spending.

The remark by Sen. Jon Kyl (R.,Ariz.), a defense finance expert and frequent budget negotiator, threatened to shatter any hope for compromise or bipartisan cooperation as the deficit panel held its first public meeting Thursday.

"I'm off of the committee, if we're going to talk about further defense spending," Sen. Kyl said at a luncheon organized by the conservative Foreign Policy Initiative, the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, referring to a conversation he had with panel members.

At the panel's meeting earlier in the day, members took pains to set a conciliatory and optimistic tone. "Compromise is not a dirty word," said committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.). "In fact, it is the difference between a divided government that works and a dysfunctional government that doesn't."



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904103404576558993243510256.html

---

No cuts to the sacred military industrial complex cow!

[vanlassie]

68. Don't let the door hit ya.

[Purveyor]

69. See ya around asshole! eom

[orpupilofnature57]

70. I don't think he's got a problem ,We do!!

Heres what the guy that beat Hitler said..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

[ixion]

71. buh-bye, then

[TheDebbieDee]

72. Let him walk.........

[gateley]

73. How did I know it was Kyl before I saw the name? What would

happen if he walked?

[msongs]

85. maybe you knew cuz this was posted at least several times yesterday lol nt

[Drale]

74. What ever happened to

if they left they lost their vote? Isn't that what made filibusters so effective back in the day?

[enki23]

75. hey, off to war with you fuckbag. you can take up the slack yourself,

you, and all the other paunchy fucking praetorians.

[jtuck004]

76. "Threatened"?

:rofl:

Given what you are paid you should be able to afford a good pair of shoes to walk in. For not working at the people's business. And working hard.

Did they elect you to go in your office, play mine sweeper or sulk, or maybe hit the bars?

What, exactly, are you doing for the people that voted for you except making sure their tax money goes to anyone else but them?

Bet they are all proud of you - the ones for whom there is no job, no social security for at least another 5 years, people still with lots of debt whose livelihood has been disappeared, who are anxious because there are so many barriers to just working and paying their bills.

[Fat]

77. Take his vote and run?

Does this mean he losses his vote?

[BlueIdaho]

78. Make him follow through on his threat.

Who needs him.

[Jim_Shorts]

79. Do we spend too much on the military...lemmee see

Nope we better cut medicare

[unkachuck]

80. "I'm off of the committee, if we're going to talk about further defense spending,"

....kyl, what kind of brain-dead moron are you? We're broke. We can't afford your luxurious gold-plated war-machine. We can't afford to defend the world from boogie-men real or imagined. In short kyl, you're a jag-off, however...

....I desperately want your ass on that supercommittee to jinx and cripple its work before it destroys the lives of millions of Americans and the Social Programs we can and must afford....you can do that for good-ole unkachuck, can't ya?

[AlbertCat]

84. We're broke.

We're NOT broke. There's plenty of $$$$... tied up in obsolete and wasteful defense spending (and tax cuts for the rich)

[villager]

81. Walk, Jon, walk! You pathetic, scummy bagman...

n/t

[elehhhhna]

82. don't mean "...threatens to Palin"...? wink wink

[peace frog]

83. You're still here?

Get permanently lost, Kyl.

[Vincardog]

86. good If there is no agreement 1/2 the cuts come from the military

[toddwv]

87. "Further" defense cuts?

When did they cut defense?

[20score]

88. Please, do us all a favor and go! It's not nice to tease.

[bluestateguy]

89. If it causes the committee to fall apart that would be a good thing

nt

[bertman]

90. Well, NO SHIT, Sherlock! Why do you think HE was one of the picks? REC. nt

[Hubert Flottz]

91. So that's the end of that stupid dream of bipartisanship 2011.

So I guess now "Everything" is not on the table?

[christx30]

92. Kyl,

as long as you are out, do you think you could stop and get a couple of pizzas for the people that choose to stay and do their jobs instead of pouting and running off because they don't get their way? I'm sure they would appreciate it, as would your replacement. Maybe someone like Olympia Snowe? I'm sure she'll be able to see what is needed and just do it, instead of saying "MORE WAR! MORE WAR!" We're not fighting the Chinese just yet. We're doing limited missions in Libya. Things are cooling down in Iraq. We couldclose the military bases in Japan or Germany. I doubt they are going to stir up trouble any time soon.

[go west young man]

93. It can easily be argued that Kyl and others like him

are literally killing American citizens. The money that they put into the MIC is money that
could have been used to cool senior citizens homes, provide education that prevents crime,
ensure health care for those in need, feed starving people here at home. Kyl and his ilk are
selfish greedy sociopaths. It's time for him to go. We have an oxymoronic budget. To defend
ourselves abroad we are literally killing ourselves at home.

[Versailles]

94. The DOD is a money sinkhole...

I work at a DOD library on a small base. This last week, a warehouse on base was giving away laptops to the first takers. These laptops are the "tough" laptops that are often used by various police/rescue forces that are mounted in the vehicles. They are also the ones that are often used in combat zones as they are essentially indestructible. These laptops are about 5 years old, give or take. Rough guestimate of price when they were bought is about 6-8 grand a piece. The library I work at now has 17 of these laptops, brand new in the box. The warehouse on this base alone was sitting on 25 of these for the last 5 years. At the guestimated price, just these laptops at this one single base is 150 - 200 grand of taxpayer money that has been sitting on a pallet for the last 5 years gathering dust. I'm not even considering the bonus features that came with the laptops (i.e - extra batteries, shoulder straps, CD drives, etc).

Of course then the other question is why was this particular warehouse suddenly becoming so generous with these laptops after so long? Short answer, they were running out of room and they are getting ready to end the fiscal year when the bases get "money drops". Basically, they will have hundreds of thousands of dollars of "extra" money to spend on things that will sit on a pallet for another 5 years, because if that money isn't spent someone might look and say, "Hey, this base didn't spend a few million dollars last year. Guess they don't need money. We can cut their budget this coming year!"


The final part to this story is that I can pretty much guarantee that the library I work for will not use all 17 of the laptops. At most, we will use 7 or 8 of them. The rest will continue to sit in the boxes unopened until someone realizes how horribly old and outdated the computers are and sends them off for destruction.

[DallasNE]

95. Call His Bluff

Let Kyl pack his bags. Then let the automatic cuts kick in. Not the best solution but a solution none the less.

[JaneQPublic]

96. And this is why Congress has a 13% approval rating. (nt)

[DCBob]

97. If Kyl causes the committee to collapse & not make any recommendations then automatic cuts kick in..

including to the military... big ones. Maybe he forgot that part.

[No Elephants]

98. Bye, bye. (The whole unconstitutional committee should walk.)

[classysassy]

99. Cut the defense budget 75%,rid the country 100% of the republicans

The economy will flourish.We will have civil discourse among our citizens if we deport Limbaugh and the empty suits and bleached blonde's at Fox the propaganda net work.

[cstanleytech]

104. That reminds me of something I read about in history...........took place back around 1940

Think it happened in germany and I dont recall it turning out to well for them either.

[grantcart]

100. which would trigger even larger automatic cuts in defense in2013

what an idiot.

[Arkana]

101. Quick, cut the defense budget. Fast.

[krabigirl]

102. Good. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[jmowreader]

103. Can anyone think of a better reason to cut defense?

This sounds more like hostage-taking than governance to me, and if he's going to be this way about it--everything is on the table EXCEPT my pet program!--we need someone else on this panel.