House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), a longtime advocate of a strong military with a robust budget, is considering a few ways to help Defense Secretary Robert Gates save some cash.

Beginning with a speech a stone’s throw from President Eisenhower’s boyhood home, Gates recommended the Pentagon begin finding ways to cut its own budget in order to save key programs and forces from the crippling cuts seen in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

With rising deficits, plans to draw down forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and a changing mood on Capitol Hill, even defense spending stalwarts such as Skelton are looking for places to trim.

Read the rest of this story at Politico byline Jen DiMascio.

Interesting story but DiMascio points out that Skelton remains supportive of a second engine for the F35 Joint Strike fighter.

My translation: We’re open to defense cuts. We’re going to do it next time. Recall that Congresswoman Betsy Markey voted to strip funds for this second engine that Defense Secretary Gates says is not needed.

Photo Credit: Politico

Posted by Gypsy Chief

F35 Joint Strike Fighter

The US House of Representatives voted 193 to 231 on a motion to strip funding from the Defense Authorization Bill of 2010 for a second F35 Joint Strike Fighter engine that the Defense Department does not want. Since the motion failed funds for a second engine stay in the defense bill. The rollcall vote on the motion may be found here

Congresswoman Helen Elizabeth “Betsy” Markey [D-CO4th] voted to strip the funds. 135 other Democrats voted to strip the funds along with 57 Republicans. House members voting to retain funds for a second engine included 115 Democrats and 116 Republicans.

After the vote Markey was critical of her colleagues for being hypocritical on budget deficits. See the story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan This story also ran on the ColoradoPols Blog

Photo Credit:KCBY TV Coos Bay / North Bend, OR

Posted by Gypsy Chief

Betsy Markey, CO 4th District Rep.

Most Democrats voted with the House leadership Thursday evening as the House passed the Patrick Kennedy amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill of 2010.

I got the news live on The Rachel Madow Show But how did my congressperson, Betsy Markey, vote? A rollcall of the vote can be found here

Turns out that Markey voted with that other Congressman Markey, the one from Mass., she voted yes. By voting yes she proved once again that she is no Marilyn Musgrave. In case you do not remember, Marilyn, when she was our congressperson campaigned for a federal constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. Imagine how she would have voted on the question to repeal DADT.

In researching this story I went to a favorite source, ColoradoPols They didn’t have any details of interest until the next day when they had a story headlined Colorado Delegation Casts Party Line Vote. I will let you find the specific reference on that site. About the same time, i.e. the next day after the vote, Politico had a credible story House Votes to Repeal ‘don’t ask’

Speaking of Politico, they had an interesting story in mid May about five Democrats, Markey among them, whose flip from no to yes provided the margin of victory for House passage of Health Care Reform. The other four Democrats are Alan Boyd, John Boccieri, Scott Murphy, and Suzanne Kosmas. All five have been targeted by the GOP.

Now that I have the actual rollcall on DADT I decided to see if any of these ‘targeted’ reperesentatives voted no on the Partick Murphy amendment. The answer is that all five voted with the House majority. The one no vote that leaps out at you is Rep. Ike Skelton [D-MO] who is House Armed Services Committee chairman. Republicans voting yes include Ron Paul of TX, no surprise, the newest House member Djou of HI, and Cao of LA along with two others.

Posted by Gypsy Chief

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I for one am glad to see Marilyn Musgrave resurface this way. Some people express disappointment that Betsy Markey seems to be more of a conserv-a-dem than they would like.

Well, having Musgrave resurface this way just reinforces Gypsy Chief’s take that conserv-a-dem or not Markey is vastly superior to the congressperson she replaced.

Posted by Gypsy Chief