Via Wired comes Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) accusing President Obama of gutting the military. Speaking from Afghanistan on a YouTube video posted by his press office, and contrasting the Gates proposal to the President’s domestic budget, Inhofe said, “in all the time we’re doing this, increasing all these welfares…the only thing in the budget that’s being cut is military.” Watch:
Perhaps if Obama had pressed Gates to call this the “Global Warming Is A Fraud Defense Department Budget of 2010”, Inhofe wouldn’t have been so harsh. But it should be noted that Oklahoma stands to lose a great deal of money if Gates gets his way and the so-called “Future Combat Systems” fleet is eliminated.
Inhofe is also a signatory to a letter to the President, imploring him not to cut funding for missile defense systems. His words today are among the harshest yet from members of Congress, although other members of Congress, including House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton have sounded notes of skepticism.
Oddly, Sen. Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate Armed Services committee has still not weighed in on Gates’ proposal. We’ll let you know what he says when he speaks up.
