Staff at LP blog, February 18:
House Republicans, who claim to be dedicated to cutting government spending, opposed an amendment to their spending bill yesterday that would eliminate funding for the Selective Service System.
Saving money is less important to Republicans than making sure they can collect information needed to coerce American males into military service against their will.
A majority of House Democrats also voted against this amendment.
@5 Which Reagan moment…”We’ll begin dropping nuclear bombs on Russia in 5 minutes,” Bitburg, or Bedtime for Bonzo? So many Reagan moments to pick…
Perhaps they are selling arms to Iran, or just in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease?
Give ’em a break, guys. They’re just having a “Reagan moment”: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1317.
Yeah…if they’re too old, they can help with mine sweeping or something.
How about drafting the politicians and letting them fight their own damn wars?
“have made draft registration the most permanent legacy of President Jimmy Carter.”
I can think of a few other things…
The last time the House of Representatives voted to defund Selective Service was in 1993, when Democrats had a majority in Congress.
Only 30 Republicans voted to end funding for the draft registration system, even though there is no draft.
The Senate failed to join in defunding, and funds were restored in a subsequent vote. The Republican majority that controlled Congress from 1995 to 2007 consistently voted to fund draft registration, and the Democrats in control until last year’s elections did so as well.
In 1980 Ronald Reagan promised to end draft registration, but after election, he kept the system in place. Many prominent conservatives have opposed conscription, including Rep Phil Crane, but bipartisan majorities have made draft registration the most permanent legacy of President Jimmy Carter.