Comments on: Giuliani's Foreign Policy

By: Centrist

Centrist — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:00:22 +0000

One thing I forgot to comment on–Guiliani writes: “The U.S. Army needs a minimum of ten new combat brigades. It may need more, but this is an appropriate baseline increase while we reevaluate our strategies and resources.”

What do we need 30,000 to 50,000 or more new COMBAT troops for? What does Rudy have planned for these people? And where is he going to get them, i.e., how low is he going to drop the entrance standards in order to prosecute the wars he has dancing in his head? They’re already taking felons; maybe he’s planning to attack another smaller country and conscript them into fighting in Iraq. Are there still Hessian mercenaries available?

By: Traveler

Traveler — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:50:25 +0000

I love how there is so much talk of tax cuts when we can’t even fully fund domestic programs. The Bush tax cuts primarily benefit a small percentage of wealthy Americans. This is his main constituency, and most other politicians’ for that matter. Frankly, I’m tired of the agenda of the rich working against the average American family.

I would think that instead of a 20% cut in federal employees, though I’m sure some areas of the government would benefit from some trimming, we could think of some more effective budget cuts e.g. regulation of earmarks in congress and revisiting the billions in aid spending that have become habitual over the years instead of beneficial to name a couple. Currently there is no restraint in federal spending, and any businessperson knows that spending beyond revenue can only be sustained in the short-term.

By: Centrist

Centrist — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:27:11 +0000

More from Rudy in a Q&A with US News & World Report:
USN&WR: Under current congressional budget rules, tax cuts must be paid for by budget cuts. How would you deal with that?
RG: “I could give them endless numbers of budget cuts. I never ran out of budget cuts when I was mayor of New York City. A budget of that size [of the federal government], you can find budget cuts everywhere in the budget. The next president should work at budget cutting for eight years and not run out of them. I’ll give you one big one—42 percent of the federal workforce is coming up for retirement from now until 10 years from now, which would effectively be at the end of the next president’s term, if the president has two terms. You could not rehire [he means "replace"] half of them, and that would save you $20 [billion] to $25 billion.”

In other words, in Giuliani’s mind, one in five current federal employees is unnecessary. Can I work for him, please? He has such regard for the work of the little guy!

USN&WR: Should the government help homeowners affected by the subprime mortgage crisis?
RG: “This would be a great time for Congress to agree to make the [Bush] tax cuts permanent. You’d send a ripple effect of confidence through our markets that would be better than any bailout you could do for anybody. That would be bailing people out through strengthening the American economic system rather than weakening it.”

In other words, somehow, perhaps magically, Bush’s economy-building tax cuts that coincided with the downward trend of real earnings for America’s middle and lower classes (those who qualified only for “subprime” home loans) will somehow change their results and and will suddenly and miraculously allow these people to pay their skyrocketing mortgage payments. Gee, why didn’t anyone else think of that solution–it’s so easy!

By: Mike W.

Mike W. — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 01:01:50 +0000

This is why Giuliani frightens me more than Hillary. If the U.S. wants to punish anti-Americanism, they can continue to do what they did in Bolivia…tell the people that if they elect an anti-American candidate (Morales) they can count on less U.S. support and involvement in their country.

His approach will, will, will make the U.S. less secure and more hated and more of a target if he is elected.