In the latest of the long shot libertarian’s moves to distinguish himself from the rest of the GOP presidential field, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson this week called for cuts in defense spending, and massive cuts at that. In a new web ad, Johnson makes the case to pare back the defense budget by 43%. To underscore how serious he is about this, Johnson enumerated the areas in defense budget that would not escape a “President Gary’s” scalpel: procurement, equipment, overseas troop levels, weapons systems, personnel – including civilian support staff.
Johnson underscores his point about redundancy in military spending by joking on a blogger conference call, “Do we really need to blow up the world 23 times over, or would eight times be sufficient? (Johnson’s numbers were gross estimates, off the cuff.) His only caveat was to remind his listeners that “I’m not an across the board guy,” and cuts would be carefully considered.
Johnson styles himself as a “truth-teller.” To balance the budget, pay down the debt and shrink the size of government as his opponents are calling for, the defense budget – like entitlements – can’t cordoned off from cuts. While Johnson seems to relish “truth-telling” to the Republican establishment, he’s not afraid to offer constructive criticism to the Tea Party, too.
At rallies where Johnson has been enthusiastically received, he has cringed at Tea Partiers waving a sign in one hand that reads “Cut spending NOW,” while waving a placard in the other that warns “Obama, hands off our troops!” Johnson confesses to be rather perplexed by those in the conservative and tea party movements that equate unquestioning deference to the military with patriotism, and knows that some have questioned his, but he’s convinced that’s cause to press his cause even more forcefully.
Johnson’s most intriguing point comes with his call bring American troops home that are defending nations abroad, and fits right into Tea Party rhetoric: by picking up Europe’s military tab, American taxpayers are de facto subsidizing European socialized health care. As long as American troops patrol the continent of Europe, we are freeing up billions of Euros that those hosting countries don’t have to spend on guns, letting them spread that butter all over their welfare states. Bring those boys home, and Europeans will have to make some hard choices about whether they can still afford all that lavish social spending.
