Since President Obama announced that he will call for $400 billion in defense and security spending over the next 12 years as part of his over all plan to reduce the debt and deficit, right-wing war hawks got to work attacking the idea. The Weekly Standard immediately pounced on the President, saying — without any evidence whatsoever — that his idea “guts” DOD.

House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) is leading the attack on defense cuts in Congress. Yesterday on C-Span, McKeon continued the offensive, “Where’d it come from?” he asked, adding “Maybe we should ask the military what their roles are and missions” (the President is in fact asking the military to review their roles and missions). McKeon then said that he hopes Obama’s idea for defense cuts is merely political, thus acknowledging that Americans actually want them as well:

MCKEON: I’m hoping that that’s just what was an opening shot in a presidential campaign. I wasn’t able to see the whole speech but I’ve read about it and I’ve read reviews and to pick a $400 billion number out of the hat to say that we’re going to cut over the next –- I mean –-

A reporter then asked McKeon “why it is so outrageous” to cut $400 billion in DOD spending over the next 12 years. But McKeon couldn’t come up with an answer and simply rattled off the military’s capacity and size today versus what it was in 1990 without really explaining what that had to do with cutting $400 billion over 12 years. Watch it:

McKeon may be right about one thing, calls for defense spending cuts could serve politically advantageous seeing that numerous polls show that Americans support it. A Reuters/Ipsos poll out last month found that “a majority of Americans prefer cutting defense spending to reduce the federal deficit rather than taking money from public retirement and health programs.” A January CBS poll found that 52 percent are willing to reduce defense spending and a February NBC/WSJ poll found that cuts in defense spending received the highest “most acceptable” rating when compared to cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And finally, a recent Pew poll found that 49 versus 47 percent favor cuts at the Pentagon to reduce the deficit.

Even though McKeon attacked Obama for wanting to cut defense spending, he’s trying to have it both ways, perhaps in an attempt to placate the Tea Party. “It’s ludicrous to think that out of a $550 billion budget that you can’t find some savings,” he also said on C-Span yesterday, adding, “We’ve got some serious problems, and defense has to be a part of it.”

Over the past month, real estate mogul Donald Trump has made quite a name for himself as a right-wing birther. Birtherism and nativism usually go hand in hand, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that Trump was recently caught railing on immigrants at a Tea Party rally in Florida this past weekend. Yet, Trump doesn’t have a problem with well-educated foreigners coming to the United States. He takes issue with the poor undocumented immigrants who “have never ever achieved anything”:

I am very strong on concise borders. We either have a country or we don’t. [...] I know many incredible people — from South America, from Europe, from Asia — they can’t get into the country. They went to the best colleges, they went to our colleges, they want to be here, they want to work, they want to create jobs. We don’t let them in. [...]

But sadly, if you’re a criminal, a sex offender, a rapist, a murderer, or quite frankly, somebody who has never ever achieved anything — and you’re able to cross the border and stay in our country — in some case with benefits and never leave. What is going on?

Watch it:

The majority of undocumented immigrants aren’t criminals. Most of them, however, could not afford to go to “the best colleges.” And as the U.S. gets older and better educated, they make up the labor population that the U.S. most depends upon. The construction and service industry that Trump has made billions off of is largely dependent on undocumented labor so it’s hard to imagine that Trump’s own success in the real estate and hotel business hasn’t been built in part on the backs of unauthorized workers.

In 2006, before the housing bubble burst, at least 28 percent of all workers employed in construction and extraction occupations were foreign born. As of 2007, about 17 percent of undocumented immigrants worked in the leisure and hospitality industries. Ten percent of hotel workers and 12 percent of food-service workers are estimated to be undocumented immigrants. These are probably low-ball estimates since businesses are likely reluctant to draw attention to the fact that a significant portion of their workforce might lack proper documentation.

In fact, Trump has faced allegations in the past that he himself hired undocumented immigrants. That was almost twenty years ago, when the population of undocumented immigrants was three times smaller than it is today.

It’s not the first time Trump has weighed in on the immigration issue. Last year, he came out in support of Arizona’s immigration law, SB-1070. At the time, Trump claimed that he “wouldn’t mind” if police started stopping people on the street to make sure they’re in the U.S. legally. “Arizona is really getting crime-ridden. There’s people coming over, there’s killings all over the place, there’s shootings all over the place,” reasoned Trump. (Crime is actually down in Arizona). He has also called for militarizing the border.