By Emelie Rutherford
Two key Republicans fresh off reelection victories gave differing views yesterday on trimming the defense budget, hinting at some of the disarray on the issue among members of the party that will have increasede clout in Congress come January.
Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon’s (R-Calif.), the current ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) who is expected to become chairman in January when Republicans take control of the House, said “cutting defense spending amidst two wars is a red line for me and should be a red line for all Americans.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), said he believes the Pentagon funding easily could be reduced by $100 billion through reforms, though he advocated for enhanced U.S. Navy presence.
They delivered their comments at a Washington conference just days after the heads of a bipartisan presidential commission recommended $100 billion in defense cuts by 2015, and during the week lawmakers returned to Congress for a lame-duck session.
“I’m not sure that you can say everything in defense is sacrosanct while the rest of these cuts, in education, social programs, etc., are taking place,” McCain said while addressing the Foreign Policy Initiative‘s forum yesterday morning.
McKeon, meanwhile, rejected President Barack Obama’s stated plans for just 1 percent annual real growth in the Pentagon’s annual budget. The congressman called such an increase “a net cut for investment and procurement accounts.”
“A defense budget in decline portends an America in decline,” he argued yesterday afternoon, noting that a bipartisan panel that reviewed the Pentagon’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review warned of a “potential train wreck coming in the areas of personnel, acquisition and force structure.”
McKeon said lawmakers must ensure taxpayer dollars are not “wasted on inefficient or redundant programs,” and that he agrees with (Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates “that we must scrutinize defense programs to ensure we are generating the most bang for the buck and that we must concentrate our limited resources on the highest priority programs.”
He said it is the HASC’s responsibility to “shift funds to higher national security priorities and promising (technologies) for the future, such as missile defense, and the means to counter anti-access threats.” He called for investing in additional Aegis ships, as well as “more proven technologies and maintaining the interceptors in the United States.”
Last week, the chairs of Obama’s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform unveiled their interim proposals for balancing the nation’s budget, calling for cutting the Pentagon’s budget by $100 billion partly by cutting an array of weapon systems (Defense Daily, Nov. 15).
Gates, meanwhile, is trying to achieve $100 billion in Pentagon savings over five years through efficiency reforms unveiled over the summer. Gates, though, wanted to keep those savings within the Pentagon, to allow for greater spending on weapon systems and warfighting capabilities within a defense budget with Obama’s proposed 1 percent annual real growth.
McKeon said he is “extremely concerned” the Pentagon would not be able to retain $100 billion in such savings. He called for the White House and its Office of Management and Budget to provide leadership for “sustaining growth for the Department of Defense.”
McCain, meanwhile, said he thinks $100 billion could be cut from the Pentagon’s budget, roughly the amount the commission proposed and the level of savings Gates identified.
McCain said he “guarantee(s)” $100 billion in Pentagon cuts are possible. He pointed to significant per-aircraft cost growth with Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
“That’s unacceptable,” he said. “It’s unacceptable to have a cost-plus contract that runs 17 months over at double the price….So I think there’s a lot of savings in defense.”
McCain reiterated his opposition to earmarked spending items added to the budget-setting defense appropriations bill. He mocked people who argue that earmarks account for only a small percentage of military spending, noting that the percentage still translates to tens of billions of dollars.
Lawmakers’ practice of earmarking items in spending bills is coming under increased scrutiny. House Republican leaders, who are preparing to take control of the chamber in January, want to ban earmarks, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gave in yesterday and said he now supports a moratorium. Obama said last Saturday the nation “can’t afford” for curbing such directed spending items.
McCain noted that Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was elected Nov. 2 with the backing of the small-government-advocating Tea Party movement, has already talked about defense budget cuts.
McCain said he worries “a lot about rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican party.”
McCain, while he wants “sufficient savings and sufficient reforms” with the Pentagon’s b budget, said he wants a strong Navy to counterbalance China’s growing military presence. He said he is not in favor of a conflict or war with China.
“I think we’re going to see kind of full circle a requirement for the United States of America to have significant naval presence around the world, in the Indian Ocean, in the South China Sea,” McCain said. “There’s no doubt that it won’t be a NATO-type alliance, but I think there will be the development of relationships between…countries (such as Japan and Vietnam)…, including a growing partnership with India to counterbalance the growing influence and sometimes aggressive behavior of China.”