Obama makes a clean sweep of the Constitution as military budget cuts get closer to home

The president’s proposal to cut $487 billion from the defense budget over the next decade, in addition to $500 billion in cuts if Congress follows through on plans for deeper reductions, has the hawks up in arms, claiming it will weaken the country and make us vulnerable to attack.

“Some will no doubt say the spending reductions are too big; others will say they’re too small,” Obama was quoted by USA Today as saying. “It will be easy to take issue with a particular change. But I would encourage all of us to remember what President Eisenhower once said — that ‘each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs.'”

One of the ways the president is proposing to cut defense expenditures is through a drastic reduction in domestic military base housing, according to Bloomburg News. To make up for the lost cots, a newly created Bureau of Surplus Housing Space for Enlistees will conduct a no-knock census of private homes within 15 miles for every U.S. military base.

New military housing program

Unused bedroom space would then be assigned to military personnel in exchange for a modest stipend. The holders of mortgages of foreclosed homes would also be required to turn on power and water and provide garbage collection service.

The Pentagon estimates the difference between the cost of maintaining, cleaning, heating and cooling existing barracks and the amount expended on the stipends could save $500 billion over the next decade, enough for a couple dozen really cool armored vehicles or half a jet fighter.

In Las Vegas and other cities with high foreclosure rates and underwater home values, many people welcomed the new program.

Frank Clary in North Las Vegas said the Bureau has already designated the nursery for his 3-month-old son as surplus space for a young Nellis WAC. He just hopes the baby’s crying doesn’t in any way fatigue the sergeant and somehow jeopardize the nation’s defense readiness program. But the family can use the stipend for the diaper bill.

Dave Dallas, a UNLV professor of the history of multicultural relationships in an industrial society, said many patriotic Americans will welcome the opportunity to invite service men and women into their homes as a way of doing their part to sacrifice for the nation, the president and his party. Besides, a couple of extra bucks in the family budget could mean a few more minutes at the video poker machine in the grocery store.

Walter E. Walters, a professor of history, economics and constitutional law at George Mason University, pointed out that the new program will put Obama in the history books for having made a clean sweep of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

While others before him had largely gutted the Commerce Clause and nine of the 10 Bill of Rights, Obama has wiped out the constitutional concept of recess appointments and the Third Amendment, which once read, “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

“Sure the First Amendment had been dented by campus speech codes and prohibitions against prayer and religious trappings anywhere on public property,” Walters said. “Sure the Second has been dialed back by requirements to register handguns. Sure the Fourth’s search and seizure safeguards were blunted by the Hiibel case in which Larry Hiibel was arrested for not giving his name to a Humbolt County deputy. Sure the Fifth’s Takings Clause was smoked by the Kelo decision. Sure the Six’s right to a speedy and public trial has been buried by redtape. The Seventh’s trial by jury right doesn’t apply to traffic court. The Eighth’s unusual punishment couldn’t hold up against the need for lifetime sentences for possession of pot. And when Congress can set the drinking age or voting age or speed limits, the Ninth and 10^th are toast. But Obama has taken out the mighty Third, which has withstood the exigencies and emergencies and whims of politicians for two centuries. What a feat!”