HE CUT WEAPONS SYSTEMS
Cheney: hypocrite on defense
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpche283776783apr28,0,4109174.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlinesApril 28, 2004
Give Republican Vice President Dick Cheney the nod for political hypocrite of the month and hope that the American people see through his game.
On Monday, Cheney attacked Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' all-but-certain nominee for president, for his votes against numerous defense programs over the years. Cheney went so far as to say that Kerry is a political opportunist who is unfit to lead the nation.
The thing is, as secretary of defense in the first Bush administration, Cheney proposed cutting or actually did cut many of those same programs. In fact, under Cheney defense spending shrank from almost 5 percent of gross domestic product to almost 2.5 percent. And you know what? Cheney should be, and has been, praised for that. The Cold War had come to an end and it made no sense to keep many of the weapons systems built to fight the Soviets.