In Tampa on Monday, South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said that if massive budgets cuts to the defense department take place as currently scheduled, "MacDill Air Force Base will be toast."
Today a former Democratic Congressman slammed the tone of those remarks, saying that the traveling tour by Senators Graham, John McCain and Kelly Ayotte over the past 48 hours has been about whipping up fears more than presenting solutions to the problem at hand.
Former Virginia Representative Glenn Nye made those comments while on a conference call set up by the Democratic National Committee. Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed and Mark Jacobson, a Senior Adviser with the Truman Project and former Deputy NATO Civilian Representative in Kabul, also participated.
The call was ostensibly set up to counter the impression by the three Republicans that the reason that the country was staring down the possibility of a $1.1 trillion cut to both domestic and defense programs was intransigence on the part of Democrats, including President Obama.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2012.