Bush's Republicans unveiled a new television ad and a "Winning the War on Terror Tour" highlighting Kerry's Senate votes against such weapons systems as the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, B-2 Stealth bomber and F/A-18 fighter jet.
The Democrats countered by accusing the White House of "hypocrisy," saying that Vice President Dick Cheney had tried to cut 81 major weapons programs while defense secretary from 1989 to 1993, including many the Republicans are using against Kerry. A statement by the Kerry campaign said the items cut by Cheney included 90 C-17 transport planes and 14 B-52 bombers, two aircraft that turned out to be vital to operations in Iraq. The Democrats argue that their candidate supported 16 of the 19 defense authorisation budgets put before the Senate since he entered the body, and any "no" votes were aimed at trimming often inflated spending plans. http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040426180849.mp2ai6ej.html And a more comprehensive take: Vice President Richard Cheney gave a brutal hatchet job of a speech yesterday. And it would have been a convincing attack on Kerry, had it not been so stomach-churningly inaccurate and malicious. Among other things, Cheney said: [Kerry] proposed reductions in funding for the Tomahawk cruise missile and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. And at numerous times, Senator Kerry has voted against funding weapons systems vital to fighting and winning the war on terror, such as the Blackhawk helicopter and the Predator drone. If you check Kerry's recordâ Kerry supported at least $6 billion in defense authorizations for the Tomahawk. Kerry backed at least $8.5 billion in defense authorizations for Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Kerry has supported at least $13 billion in defense authorizations on versions of the Blackhawk. As for Dick Cheneyâ Cheney's defense budget was so pared-down that it didn't include any funds for more Tomahawk missiles in 1991, despite stocks rapidly diminished by the military action in the Persian Gulf. - Washington Post, 2/5/91; Aerospace Daily, 1/23/91; AP, 6/20/90 "Major weapons killed include the Army's M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Navy's Trident submarine and F-14 aircraft, and the Air Force's F-16 airplane. Cheney decided the military already has enough of these weapons." - Boston Globe, 2/5/91 "The Pentagon's internal budget deliberations recommended termination of the Black Hawk program under Secretary Cheney." -Aerospace Daily, 5/15/90 The Washington Post also did a nice job of debunking Cheney's attack on Kerry on intelligence funding. Give it a read if you're interested in hearing how much bigger the proposed Republican cut was, and how Cheney distorted Kerry's actual record. Cheney, Bush and their cronies are going to extravagant lengths to paint Kerry as soft on defense. It's pure spin. Put side by side, he's consistently stronger than Cheney. But here's the bigger picture. Not only does Kerry come out better on specific defense-related votes, he beats Bush on national security because he wouldn't undercut our troops. He wouldn't send them into unnecessary wars without help from allies, or repeatedly cut combat pay, or slash veteran's health care, or withhold needed equipment. http://www.airamericaradio.com/bin/blogExcerpts.cfm?blogId=1&prg=3&year=2004&month=4&day=27 More on the intelligence cuts, the last attacks - Kerry on Sept. 29, 1995, proposed a five-year, $1.5 billion cut to the intelligence budget. But Bush appears to be wrong when he said the proposed Kerry cut -- about 1 percent of the overall intelligence budget for those years -- would have "gutted" intelligence. In fact, the Republican-led Congress that year approved legislation that resulted in $3.8 billion being cut over five years from the budget of the National Reconnaissance Office -- the same program Kerry said he was targeting. The $1.5 billion cut Kerry proposed represented about the same amount Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), then chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told the Senate that same day he wanted cut from the intelligence spending bill based on unspent, secret funds that had been accumulated by one intelligence agency "without informing the Pentagon, CIA or Congress." The NRO, which designs, builds and operates spy satellites, had accumulated that amount of excess funds. Yeah, chutzpah and hypocrisy and lies, Cheney trademarks. Gary Denton #1 on google for liberal news On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:34:17 -0500, Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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