Cheney's Military Voting Record

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Cheney Proposed to Cut Defense Programs Vital to Recent Military Operations

Cheney Proposed Cutting F-16 Aircraft. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Cheney said, "If you're going to have a smaller air force, you don't need as many F-16s...The F-16D we basically continue to buy and close it out because we're not going to have as big a force structure and we won't need as many F-16s." According to the Boston Globe, Bush's 1991 defense budget "kill[ed] 81 programs for potential savings of $ 11.9 billion...Major weapons killed include[d]....the Air Force's F-16 airplane." [Cheney testimony, House Armed Services Committee, 2/7/91; Boston Globe, 2/5/91]

Cheney Proposed Cuts to B-2 Program. According to the Boston Globe, in 1990, "Defense Secretary Richard Cheney announced a cutback... of nearly 45 percent in the administration's B-2 Stealth bomber program, from 132 airplanes to 75..." [Boston Globe, 4/27/90]

Cheney Proposed Cutting AH-64 Apaches. In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, Cheney said, "This is just a list of some of the programs that I've recommended termination: the V-22 Osprey, the F-14D, the Army Helicopter Improvement Program, Phoenix missile, F-15E, the Apache helicopter, the M1 tank, et cetera." In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Cheney said, "The Army, as I indicated in my earlier testimony, recommended to me that we keep a robust Apache helicopter program going forward, AH-64...I forced the Army to make choices...So I recommended that we cancel the AH-64 program two years out." [Cheney testimony, Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, 6/12/90; Cheney Testimony, House Armed Services Committee, 7/13/89, emphasis added]

Cheney Proposed Cutting M-1 Abrams Tanks. In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, Cheney said, "This is just a list of some of the programs that I've recommended termination: the V-22 Osprey, the F-14D, the Army Helicopter Improvement Program, Phoenix missile, F-15E, the Apache helicopter, the M1 tank, et cetera." The Boston Globe reported on the impact of Cheney's cuts to armored tanks: "The Army's cupboard is left particularly bare. Coming in the wake of last year's killing of the M-1 tank and the Apache helicopter, the death of the M-2 means the Army will soon have virtually no major weapons in production." [Cheney testimony, Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, 6/12/90; Boston Globe, 2/5/91]

Cheney Proposed Cutting B-52 Bombers. In 1990, Cheney proposed cutting 14 B-52 bombers. Cheney also sought the retirement of two Navy battleships, two nuclear cruisers, and eight nuclear-powered attack submarines. In 1991, Cheney scrapped the Navy's A-12 Stealth attack plane, a fighter that was proclaimed to be a key part of the future of navy aviation in advanced stealth technology. [Newsday, 2/5/91; NY Times, 1/8/91; Boston Globe, 4/27/90; Boston Globe, 1/30/90]
Cheney's Record as Secretary of Defense Includes Cutting Troops and Bases

Cheney Cut Thousands of Active-Duty, Reserve, and Civilian Forces.

In January 1990, Cheney banned the hiring of any new civilian personnel in the Defense Department through the end of September, which left more than 65,000 jobs vacant. Under the budget proposed in 1990, the Pentagon would have reduced active military personnel by 38,000; selected reserves would have fallen by 3,000. The budget called for the deactivation of two Army divisions. Long range, the Pentagon planned to reduce its work force by 300,000, including about 200,000 military personnel and 100,000 civilians. In 1991, he called for reduction of 200,000 active and reserve military personnel over two years. In 1992, Cheney called for cutting 500,000 active-duty people, 200,000 reservists, and 200,000 civilians over five years. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 2/2/92; Chicago Tribune, 2/20/91; 1990 CQ Almanac, p. 672; Washington Post, 1/13/90; Boston Globe, 1/30/90]

Active-Duty and Reserve Forces Endured Huge Reductions Under Cheney. The LA Times reported in November 1991 that the number of active-duty military personnel had decreased by over 106,000, or 5 percent of the total forces. The National Guard and Reserves had been cut by nearly 38,000, instead of the 105,000 the Bush Administration sought. [LA Times, 11/2/91]

Cheney Proposed Over 70 Base Closures. In 1990, Cheney proposed the closure of 72 domestic military installations and 12 overseas facilities. On April 12, 1991, Cheney proposed to close 31 major domestic military bases. The plan also called for shutting 12 smaller bases and reducing operations at 28 others. He submitted his list of closures to a commission on base closings on April 15, 1991. In 1992, Cheney proposed 70 overseas military base closures, three of which were in Turkey. [Aerospace Daily, 8/17/92; 1991 CQ Almanac, p. 427; Chicago Tribune, 1/30/90]

[watermock]

LABF the hawk. How amusing.

Offspry is a flying joke.

We have or had 800 Abrams tanks. They were upgraded recently to full digital.

The A-12 was an experimental plane replaced by the F-117 NightHawk.

The F-14D is 30 years old and was replaced by the F-18 and soon to be Joint Strike Fighter.

They are going to retire two old Iowa Class Battleships and two Cruisers? This isn't WW2. They will make fine museum pieces tho. Hopefully. I think the Missouri is allready a museum, they should probably make another.

The F-16 is still in production for allies, but it's pretty much outdated as well.

The B-52 is almost 50 years young and will continue to fade away slowly as certain airframes become simply unuseable. Talk about an antique.

The B-2 was designed for a nuclear war. The collapse of the USSR allowed those 800 tanks to be used elsewhere, and the B-2 program to be cut back. It's not economical as a conventional bomber.

I could go on and on, but the point is that the USSR fell, ending a HUGE threat in weapons procurement, and Reagan had never seen a weapon that he didn't like. The cupboard was full.

Obviously, the thin skin of Humvees, which were never really intended to work anywhere but behind Tanks and APC's, were forced into service on Urban Patrol where they are mincemeat for improvised roadside bombs and RPG's.

Strykers are coming in that should be a major improvement, altho I don't like that design either. We need another urban combat vehicle with more guns, not just a tank killer. More like a hard armored, mobile 50 caliber porcupine with grenade launchers Suplemented with the traditional Stryker.

For all your complaining LABF, we just launched another Aircraft Carrier, named the Ronald Reagan (I bet you love that), and will probably curtail the F-22 production to move another generation up to the Joint Strike Fighter.

There also is yet another Nimitz2 class Carrier being built I think it's going to be the Bush . That will give us 7 or 8 SuperCarriers (not sure). Each has it's own battlegroup. The idea that the United States is emasculated militarily is a joke.

Finally, existing ApacheA series are being upgraded as well as the new ApacheD "LongBow" Helicopters will have both the newest Air to Air stinger systems, as well as the newest Hellfire missle system.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]