Jason Chaffetz Admits House GOP Cut Funding For Embassy Security: 'You Have To Prioritize Things'

[dinar_stud]

Jason Chaffetz Admits House GOP Cut Funding For Embassy Security: 'You Have To Prioritize Things'

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) acknowledged on Wednesday that House Republicans had consciously voted to reduce the funds allocated to the State Department for embassy security since winning the majority in 2010.

On Wednesday morning, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien asked the Utah Republican if he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security."

"Absolutely," Chaffetz said. "Look we have to make priorities and choices in this country. We have…15,000 contractors in Iraq. We have more than 6,000 contractors, a private army there, for President Obama, in Baghdad. And we’re talking about can we get two dozen or so people into Libya to help protect our forces. When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices. You have to prioritize things.”

For the past two years, House Republicans have continued to deprioritize the security forces protecting State Department personnel around the world. In fiscal year 2011, lawmakers shaved $128 million off of the administration's request for embassy security funding. House Republicans drained off even more funds in fiscal year 2012 -- cutting back on the department's request by $331 million.

Consulate personnel stationed in Benghazi had allegedly expressed concerns over their safety in the months leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks that killed four Americans, including Amb. Chris Stevens. Chaffetz and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, claim those concerns were ignored.

"It seems to be a coordinated effort between the White House and the State Department, from Secretary [Hillarious] Clinton to President Obama's White House," Chaffetz told Fox and Friends on Tuesday.

Chaffetz and Issa co-signed a letter to the State Department, demanding answers on to the Benghazi security detail. State Department officials and other witnesses will testify before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations on Wednesday.

Ahead of the hearing, some Democrats claim that partisanship and campaigning are corrupting the Libyan investigation, The New York Times reports. The charges come as some GOP members attempt to frame the incident as a failure of the Obama's foreign policy and to call criticize the administration for engaging in a "cover-up" of what really occurred.

[dinar_stud]

This is the video clip:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/10/10/exp-point-chaffetz-two.cnn

[Francie26]

I don't buy this as you presented it. If we have 15,000 or is it 6,000 people for Obama in Iraq, then it seems to me that some of those people could have been sent to Libya to protect our embassy. I don't think Obama nor Hillarious eitehr one knows what they are doing, and neither of them were very concerned about the safety of the embassy personnel, including the ambassador. When calls were made from the embassy explaining that they needed extra protection, they were simply ignored or refused. And when the White House got the request for more help, Obama also blithely refused. I think he did it because he was convinced that he knew best, and that everything was going swimmingly throughout the entire Middle East after Obama interfered and waved his magic wand. I guess the Libyans didn't like all of Obama's bombing raids, huh?

[cris]

Clinton is directly responsible for this debacle....No passing it off on

anyone else.....Btw, where the heck is she?...Hiding obviously...Probably hanging

out with Eric Holder and Biden, being told to keep their mouths shut.

[TexasGranny]

Received this tweet from Darrell Issa today - the article is below.

"Darrell Issa ‏@DarrellIssa

Hmm... http://bit.ly/OTU5KL

Expand Reply Retweeted Favorite"

DailyCaller

Dems accuse GOP of cutting security funding in Libya despite majority Dem support for vote

House Democrats opened Wednesday’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing by attacking Republicans for cuts to embassy security funding — cuts that only happened thanks to overwhelming support from House Democrats, including House Oversight Committee Ranking Democratic member Rep. Elijah Cummings. In fact, more House Democrats – 149 of them — voted for the cuts than did House Republicans, of which 147 voted for them.

“We have to examine the funding,” Cummings said in his opening statement. “The fact is, since 2011, the House has cut embassy security by hundreds of millions of dollars below the amounts requested by the president. The House has done that. The Senate restored some of these funds but the final amounts were still far below the administration’s requests and they were far below the levels we enacted in 2010.”

Democratic staff on the Oversight Committee circulated a memo to Democratic members on Tuesday evening, too, that also attacks Republicans along the same line of reasoning.

“Since gaining the majority in 2011, House Republicans have voted to reduce embassy security funding by approximately half a billion dollars below the amounts requested by the Obama Administration,” the memo reads. “Although the Senate has been able to restore a small portion of these funds, the final appropriations enacted by Congress in the previous two Fiscal Years have been far below the amounts requested by the Administration for embassy security, and far below the levels enacted in Fiscal Year 2010, the last year Democrats controlled the House.”

What Cummings and the Democratic Oversight Committee staff are referring to is the final fiscal year 2012 omnibus appropriations package that included $2.075 billion for the programs – $567.5 million less than the Obama administration’s request.

Cummings and the Democratic staff memo don’t mention that Democrats made those cuts into embassy security funding possible.

A spokeswoman for Cummings has not returned a request for comment on the matter.

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There is always more to the story than just one side!

[cris]

Murdered ambassador sent cable warning of threats on day of Benghazi attack

POSTED AT 8:41 AM ON OCTOBER 8, 2012 BY ED MORRISSEY

A number of media sources have fresh looks at the Obama administration’s handling of security in the weeks before the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi drove us out of eastern Libya and killed four Americans, including US Ambassador J. Christopher Stephens. First, Fox News reported yesterday that the State Department decided to stick to its schedule of rotating out a 16-man Special Ops team assigned to diplomatic security in Benghazi, just weeks before the attack in August. They were joined in their exit by a six-man security team from the State Department itself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UpFddp51Go

ABC News follows this up with a report this morning that Stevens himself wanted the special forces team to stay in Libya, but apparently were overruled:

Edited October 11, 2012 by cris

[rothsdad]

sacrifice

[Royce]

Jason Chaffetz Admits House GOP Cut Funding For Embassy Security: 'You Have To Prioritize Things'

On Wednesday morning, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien asked the Utah Republican if he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security."

Soledad O'Brian is a "TALKING HEAD" for the Democrats and Obama. You can tell by the smeerk on her face as to her motives and the questions she asks. She just took the talking points from the the Obama Campaign and attacked Chaffetz. Why isn't she asking the questions to Obama and Clinton on who would not send in the proper security for one of our Ambassadors? Since Obama has the kill list in front of him at all times and Obama has the final say on who dies and who lives in those countries, maybe our ambassador was on Obama's Hit List.

Soledad O'Brian is the prime example of the "Gotcha Media" and break down of the real news reporting for the benefit of the public.