Robert Gates may get lift from tea parties, for cutting defense budget

[The_Penguin]

As Defense Secretary Robert Gates takes on General Electric, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and other “powerful people” in seeking cuts to major weapons programs, he may get help from an unexpected ally — the tea party movement.

Key tea party players, on and off Capitol Hill, are expressing a willingness to put the Pentagon budget on the chopping block if it will help rein in federal spending and eliminate a projected trillion-dollar-plus budget deficit.

Although generally hawkish and conservative with a libertarian streak — “we’re for strong defense” is an oft-repeated mantra in the movement — tea party leaders and allies contacted by POLITICO said that both fairness and common sense dictate that the military budget be scrutinized for such cuts, a view that puts them in sync with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and some of the most liberal members of Congress.

-snip-

Robert Gates may get lift from tea parties - John Bresnahan - POLITICO.com

Hmm... actually being serious to the point of cutting defense is is probably one of the more saner 'streaks' of the Tea Party movements. I'm not going to go into the pros and cons of our defense budget, but if this movement expresses genuine concern about our finances that they want to cut defense spending, then we're talking about a complete different ball-game than simply mindless bashing of Obama.