Like countless others, The Divine Miss M. was utterly captivated by Bill Clinton’s speech last night at the DNC.
"What works in the REAL WORLD is CO-OPERATION!! Simple, reasonable, fundamental. Thank you, @billclinton don't stop believing..
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 6, 2012
I kinda love these conventions..conventional, but to watch a great speaker like @billclinton is not. Better than ever.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 6, 2012
Apparently, one line in particular really stuck out at her:
[The Republicans] want to cut taxes for high- income Americans, even more than President Bush did. They want to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit future bailouts. They want to actually increase defense spending over a decade $2 trillion more than the Pentagon has requested without saying what they’ll spend it on. And they want to make enormous cuts in the rest of the budget, especially programs that help the middle class and poor children.
According to Defense News, the Republicans haven’t yet been too specific on how the money would be spent, but their platform suggests that at least some of the money would go toward replenishing the supply of military aircraft and ships as well as developing and refining intelligence capabilities:
The official Republican Party policy platform, formally adopted last week at its convention, features several defense-themed sections. But those sections mostly criticize the Obama administration for retiring aircraft and ships and shrinking the Army and Marine Corps, and charges the White House is blocking efforts to modernize the U.S. nuclear arms fleet. It is unclear whether Romney would use his proposed Pentagon budget inflation to reverse some or all of the Obama administration’s plans.
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The GOP platform does promise to develop “the full range of military and intelligence options to defeat Al Qaeda and its affiliates,” as well as new cyber war tools.
Macaroni Midler‘s flabbergasted tweet also seems to suggest she believes that, given the chance, the U.S. military would use the additional funds to procure weapons to defend ourselves against our allies. It may have been a long journey from Milan to Minsk, but the trip from sanity to crazypants is just a hop, skip, and a jump.
P.S. Excessive federal spending is clearly a problem that’s plagued both sides of the political spectrum. But Bette, if you’re concerned about the government’s fiscal irresponsibility, we’ve got 16 trillion reasons you should be directing your frustration at President Obama.
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