Psst, Romney. . . There have been no “massive defense cuts” under President Obama

bigtree

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Sat Oct-08-11 07:58 AM
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Psst, Romney. . . There have been no “massive defense cuts” under President Obama

Edited on Sat Oct-08-11 07:59 AM by bigtree

from the AP: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/52694061-68/defense-billion-romney-obama.html.csp

Oct 08 2011

Fact check: Romney misfires on defense, foreign policy issues

WASHINGTON • In a foreign policy speech to cadets at South Carolina’s The Citadel, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised Friday to reverse non-existent “massive defense cuts” and pledged to deploy missiles and ships that already are largely in place. A closer look at some of his statements, and how they compare to the facts:

ROMNEY: “As President, on day one, I will focus on rebuilding America’s economy and I will reverse President Obama’s massive defense cuts. Time and again, we have seen that attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price, not only in treasure, but in blood.” Romney also has vowed to increase the size of the military by 100,000 troops, a move he says is needed to reduce the hardship of long and frequent deployments. (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/279491/romneys-foreign-policy-speech-katrina-trinko)

THE FACTS: There have been no “massive defense cuts” under Obama, although he has slowed the projected rate of increase and in April asked the Pentagon to identify another $400 billion in reductions over the next 12 years . . .

. . . As for troop numbers, Obama’s previous defense secretary, Robert Gates, put the Army and Marine Corps on a path to reducing troop numbers to adjust to the winding down of combat in Iraq and plans to reduce troops in Afghanistan. The Army is to drop from its current 569,000 to 547,000 by September 2013, and then to 520,000 by 2015. The Marines are to drop from their current total of 202,000 to a figure yet to be specified but in the neighborhood of 186,000 by 2015 . . .

ROMNEY: In his first 100 days in office, pledges to “reverse the hollowing of our Navy and announce an initiative to increase the shipbuilding rate from 9 per year to 15. I will begin reversing Obama-era cuts to national missile defense and prioritize the full deployment of a multilayered national ballistic missile defense system. ... I will enhance our deterrent against the Iranian regime by ordering the regular presence of aircraft carrier task forces, one in the Eastern Mediterranean and one in the Persian Gulf region.”

THE FACTS: The number of ships in the Navy has been declining steadily since the 1980s . . Despite Romney’s implication, there already is a full-time carrier presence in the Persian Gulf and has been for many years. There is no full-time presence in the Mediterranean, although carriers are frequently there for deployments in the Middle East.

A national missile defense already is deployed and being expanded . . .

read: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/52694061-68/defense-billion-romney-obama.html.csp

related:

transcript of Romney 'foreign policy' speech Oct.7: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/279491/romneys-foreign-policy-speech-katrina-trinko