Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Hadas deGroot

President Obama’s Defense budget falls short on missile defense spending, say House Republicans.

Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced plans to scale-back and reshape military spending. Even though the 2010 budget includes a 4% increase overall, this marks a slow-down of the growth of defense spending which occurred during the Bush administration.

Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) said the cut-backs irresponsibly take money away from missile defense.

Recently returned from a trip to Syria, Israel, Gaza, and India, Inglis said, "When you see tangible evidence of the results of missiles in Israel, and all in the midst of this comes a launch by the North Koreans, it's just a particularly bad idea to cut funding for this."

Gates' supporters say the balancing pf priorities marks a milestone for the Defense Department.

The United States could save billions by "Keeping ballistic missile defense in a research mode until the technologies are proven,” said Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress.