Posted by Shawn Brimley
So McCain attacked Obama today on military spending, questioning the Democratic candidate's stance on increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps. This from
CNN:
Of course, now he wants to increase it,” McCain told an audience in Lee’s Summit, Missouri Monday. “But during the primary he told a liberal advocacy group that he’d cut defense spending by tens of billions of dollars. He promised them he would, quote, ‘slow our development of future combat systems.’”
There are two problems with this.
First, "future combat systems" or FCS is a very large Army vehicle procurement program that has absolutely nothing to do the endstrength of the Army or Marine Corps. It is by far the biggest item in the Army's procurement budget at $160 billion and has been heaviliy scrutized by the
GAO and others for years.
Second, and more importantly, John McCain himself has quite a long history of criticizing the FCS program.
In 2005, McCain pushed
hard for revisions to the FCS contract: "I am concerned that the Army has not adequately protected taxpayers’ interests." According to
Government Executive.com, at a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing that March, McCain grilled Army officials about FCS. "We need to have a hearing on it," McCain told
Inside the Army.
So who's the flip-flopper here? McCain circa 2005 had the exact same position at Obama does today, but McCain circa 2008 is essentially attacking himself! Wow.
Record of
Juke Box Johnny's changing tune
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