Tell McCain and Ayotte to Cut Spending!

A four-state tour by Senate Republicans to warn of looming defense cuts ended Tuesday in New Hampshire. Senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte spoke in New Hampshire.

“We Republicans need to decide if we are fiscal realists or big spenders like the Democrats” said Kevin Kervick, Chair of Common Sense Community Builders. “If we constantly advocate our favorite taxpayer transfer spending while at the same time criticizing the Democrats for protecting their favorite cash transfers, we are hypocrites. Statism is statism. The military system should not be viewed as a taxpayer funded jobs programs any more than the welfare system should be viewed as a taxpayer funded jobs program. We need to rebuild the real economy by deconstructing the artificial economy.”

Kervick went on to say “I am a Department of Defense independent contractor. Thus defense cuts will affect my personal bottom line. But they are necessary because our great country is bankrupt. The long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are ending, thus the military spending that increased wildly in the 00’s must be brought back into balance. It is also time to start closing bases around the world and bring those men and women and their jobs home to our country. We can no longer afford our cold war footing around the world. Let other countries begin to pay for their own national security.

The Simpson-Bowles plan, commissioned by President Obama, and then ignored by him so he could pander to his own base, recommended serious cuts in both entitlement AND military spending. That is the fair and necessary way to do it. All stakeholders should have skin in the game because all of us share in the debt burden. Shared sacrifice is needed. Let’s come together as a nation and do what is right for our children and grandchildren.”