Answer to right wing email #1

Here's a RW email that's been circulating about John Kerry...


> He voted to kill the Bradley Fighting Vehicle
>He voted to kill the M-1 Abrams Tank
>He voted to kill every aircraft carrier laid down from 1988.
>He voted to kill the Aegis anti aircraft system
>He voted to Kill the F-15 Strike Eagle
>He voted to Kill the Block 60 F-16
>He voted to Kill the P-3 Orion upgrade
>He voted to Kill the B-1
>He voted to Kill the B-2
>He voted to Kill the FA-18
>He voted to Kill the B-2
>He voted to Kill the F117
>In short, he voted to kill every military appropriation for the development
>and deployment of every weapons systems since 1988 to include the battle
>armor for our troops. With Kerry as president our Army will be made up of
>naked men running around with sticks and clubs.
>
> He also voted to kill all anti terrorism activities of every agency of
>the U.S. Government and to cut the funding of the FBI by 60%, to
>cut the funding for the CIA by 80%, and cut the funding for the NSA by 80%.
> But then he voted to increase OUR funding for U.N operations by 800%!!!
>
>Is THIS a President YOU want?
>Please pass this on, as many people may not know how bad it is.
>And don't limit your sending to just your Republican
>friends. Everyone needs to know.

Here's my responce

Most of the weapons "cuts" it is talking about weren't individual
votes at all, but a single vote on the Pentagon's 1991 appropriations bill.
16 senators, including five Republicans, voted along with Kerry against the
bill. At the time of the 1991 vote, deeper cuts in military spending were
being advocated by some prominent Republicans-including then-President George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who was secretary of defense at the time.

Sen. Kerry had tried to cut $1.5 billion from the intelligence budget, a
move Bush called a "gutting."

--Actually Kerry's proposed cut was smaller than the eventual $3.8 billion cut passed by the Republican-led Congress, which focused on a mismanaged intelligence program that had accumulated excess funds.

As far as the FBI and CIA cuts at 80% or whatever, I'd really like to see the source for these numbers. I can't seem to find anything like them anywhere and wouldn't be surprised if they are just made up or highly exaggerated.

A look back at the record shows it was Cheney who repeatedly tried to cut defense spending at this time.

On 2/1/90,Cheney proudly told Congress "since I became Secretary, we've been through a fairly major process of reducing the defense budget." He bragged that during the first year of his tenure, he "cut almost $65 billion out of the five-year defense program" and that subsequent proposals would "take another $167 billion out." He trumpeted the fact that "we're recommending base closures," "we're talking about force structure cuts" and "we've got a military construction freeze." And as the 8/4/91 NY Times noted, Cheney tried "to reduce active-duty troop strength" from 2.2 million to 1.6 million while making "deep cuts in the Reserves and National Guard" - a move that is now, in part, forcing the military to extend tours of duty and increase the combat burden on reservists in Iraq.

The idea that a Kerry led military would be "naked guys with sticks" is
silly even if taken as a hyperbole.

When you hear rhetoric like this, just take a few minutes to look it up
before you believe it. But please, keep sending it. It's funnier than
blonde jokes.

Here's a link to another answer as well...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/weapons.asp