Tax Watchdogs Pitch Defense Cuts

By Mike Hothi

A panel led today by a group of government watchdogs proposed a series of defense spending cuts that they argued would not threaten the nation’s level of national security.

One suggestion was to defund the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS). MEADS is a program that is designed to replace the aging Patriot systems in the United States, Germany and Italy. Patriot systems are surface-to-air missiles that are used to destroy aircraft or other missiles.

“The Army doesn’t want the project,” said Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams. “There is no reason that the Pentagon can’t cancel the program as soon as possible.”

Another proposal was to prevent funding to General Electric’s efforts to create an affordable substitute for current jet fighters. President Obama has openly criticized funding for the alternate engine.

“The three billion dollar alternate engine will siphon away much needed defense dollars that could be spent protecting American lives,” Williams stated.

The Department of Defense stopped funding the alternate engine program in March but a House Armed Services subcommittee passed legislation requiring the Pentagon to extend funding if it were asked by the developer for more money.

Today’s discussion took place hours before the new Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction was scheduled to hold another meeting. The committee is tasked with formulating a plan to shrink the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. Failure by the committee to do so would result in a series of automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending equal to that $1.5 trillion target.

Defense Cuts Must Be On The Table, Say Experts

By Anna Cameron

Defense and budget experts confirmed Friday that the nation is headed in the direction of a military “build-down,” as they considered efforts to “discipline” defense spending. The experts spoke at a roundtable jointly held by the Henry L. Stimson Center and the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“We’re here because we genuinely believe that the United States is nearing the brink of a catastrophe,” said former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). “We are motivated in restraining defense…because we are more than confident that the United States cannot continue for years on end with this debt-to-GDP ratio, without something going out of kilter.”

The BPC Debt Reduction Task Force, co-chaired by Domenici, has proposed a national security budget freeze that would hold spending at fiscal year 2011 levels until 2017, a plan which the group says would save a total of $1.1 trillion dollars. President Obama’s 2012 budget, however, proposes boosting the Pentagon’s budget to $671 billion.

Though many argue that making cuts to defense will threaten national security and render the nation more vulnerable, panelists reiterated their shared belief that the escalating debt poses the single biggest threat to national security.

“The fundamental point is that failure to reign in the rising debt poses an enormous risk to our economic vitality and national security in the relatively near term,” noted Alice Rivlin, co-chair of the bipartisan task force. “We cannot afford non-essential spending for any broad purpose — whether it’s health or eduction or defense — until we get our federal budget back on a sustainable track.”

In addition, experts stressed the importance of Congressional action in regards to slashing defense spending. Suggesting several target areas, such as investments, compensations and benefits for individuals, infrastructure, and a re-evaluation of global engagement, they established that the time is now to begin the implementation process.

“We’ve got one shot at this, [and] it actually starts right after the 2012 presidential election,” said David Berteau of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Leading up to that, there is a lot to be done…You can kill an awful lot, you’ve just got to kill it over the horizon so it doesn’t know it’s dead in time to shoot you.”

Defense Train Wreck Could Be Coming, Cautions Independent Panel

By Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service

With future military engagements eminent, the independent panel assigned to examine the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), the Congressionally mandated overview of U.S. military policy, says that U.S. defense needs to be modernized in nearly every aspect. A report from the panel calls for more people, equipment and, ultimately, more money.

“Our current federal government structures, both executive and legislative, and in particular those related to security, were fashioned in the 1940s and they work at best imperfectly today,” said former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, who steers the panel along with former Defense Secretary William Perry. The pair testified this morning before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday.

The report states that “the aging of the inventories and equipment used by the services, the decline in the size of the Navy, escalating personnel entitlements, overhead and procurement costs, and the growing stress on the force mean that a train wreck is coming.” 

To avoid such a grim fate, Hadley and Perry recommended expanding personnel, acquisition and the overall force structure.

Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), the Ranking Member of the committee, applauded the panel’s conclusion, which stands in contrast to calls from many on Capitol Hill to reduce defense spending and the streamlined interpretation of military policy included in the QDR itself.

Despite the report’s answers on how the military should be improved, how to pay for such changes remains in question.

House GOP Outraged Over Debt Ceiling Attachment To Defense Bill

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.), along with other House GOP leaders, reacted Friday to plans by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to tack a Pentagon appropriations bill with legislation that would increase the nation's debt ceiling amount by $1.8 trillion by unveiling the" CAP the DEBT Act."

The bill would repeal the Gephart Rule, which allows debt ceiling increases to be included in joint budget resolutions without a direct vote. Under the Scalise legislation, changes to the national debt ceiling amount would have to pass both Congressional houses with two-thirds majority vote.

Congressman Scalise said that the CAP the DEBT Act is being filed because "the liberals that are running this Congress have been on a wild spending spree for the last three years, since Speaker Pelosi has had the gavel."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that the ceiling increase would be tacked to a spending bill headed to the House floor next week and that legislation is largely expected to be the pending $636.4 billion Pentagon appropriations bill that would partially fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to Pelosi's announcement, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that increasing the ceiling is necessary in order to pay the country's mounting bills.

However, Scalise was not happy with the proposed method for increasing the national ceiling, saying “the ultimate sign of hypocrisy is [that] this Democrat liberal group running Congress is going to now again hide behind our troops and throw this increase of the national debt ceiling on a defense bill."

Gingrich: We Are At The Edge Of A Catastrophe

The United States needs a dramatic increase in defense spending as well as a massive overhaul of its national security decision-making process in order to avoid a catastrophe, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Monday.

“[We need] a national security budget and a homeland security budget driven by meeting the capabilities of our opponents, not by meeting their intentions. We are today running very big risks in the name of saving a few billion dollars that may end up killing several million Americans. The time to fix that is before the disaster happens,” said Gingrich.

He described several threats to national security such as nuclear, biological, and cyber attacks, as well as electromagnetic pulse attacks that could wipe out most of the country’s electrical structure. Gingrich stated that the U.S., like Japan, should start militarizing outer space in order to protect the massive amounts of communication technology orbiting the Earth.

Gingrich also criticized the federal government's inability to act decisively and quickly, explaining that bureaucracy hinders the country's ability to move at the speed of the modern world or sustain its defense system.

“We have been the most fortunate generation in history...We are still today the richest, freest, and safest people in the history of the world. That will only remain true if we have the courage, the discipline, and the foresight to insist on the kind of changes we need in order to maintain safety as the highest single value of the American people, a base on which you can then build prosperity and freedom,” said Gingrich.