Tea Party: Defense Spending Not Exempt From Cuts
CEO of Verizon Wireless, Dan Mead, during his keynote speech at CTIA 2012. / Lynn La/CNET
Back home, supporters of the conservative tea party movement clamoring for the debt-ridden federal government to slash spending say nothing should be off limits. Tea party-backed lawmakers echo that argument, and they are not exempting the military's multibillion-dollar budget in a time of war.
That demand is creating hard choices for the newest members of Congress, especially Republicans who owe their elections and solid House majority to the influential grass-roots movement. Cutting defense and canceling weapons could mean deep spending reductions and high marks from tea partiers as the U.S. wrestles with a $1.3 trillion deficit. Yet it also could jeopardize thousands of jobs when unemployment is running high.
Proponents of the cuts could also face criticism that they're trying to weaken national security in a post-Sept. 11 world.
House Republican leaders specifically exempted defense, homeland security and veterans' programs from spending cuts in their party's "Pledge to America" campaign manifesto last fall. But the House's new majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, has said defense programs could join others on the cutting board.
The defense budget is about $700 billion annually. Few in Congress have been willing to make cuts as U.S. troops fight in Afghanistan and wind up the operation in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a recent pre-emptive move, proposed $78 billion in spending cuts and an additional $100 billion in cost-saving moves. While that amounts to $13 billion less than the Pentagon wanted to spend in the coming year, it still stands as 3 percent growth after inflation is taken into account.
That's why tea party groups say if the government is going to cut spending, the military's budget needs to be part of the mix.
"The widely held sentiment among Tea Party Patriot members is that every item in the budget, including military spending and foreign aid, must be on the table," said Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. "It is time to get serious about preserving the country for our posterity. The mentality that certain programs are 'off the table' must be taken off the table."
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, leaders of the group FreedomWorks, which has backed the tea partiers, recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that "defense spending should not be exempt from scrutiny." On Gates' proposed savings of $145 billion over five years, they said, "That's a start."
Just about all Republicans - and plenty of Democrats, too - favor paring back spending. But when it comes to specific cuts - eliminating money for schools, parks, hospitals, highways and everything else - the decisions get difficult. Every government expenditure has its advocates and no one wants his or her program cut.
Fault lines have emerged within the Republican ranks over how deep to cut and where to whittle. In the coming weeks, lawmakers will feel the pressure from constituents and colleagues.
"Everything is ultimately on the table," said Rep. Jon Runyan of New Jersey, a freshman Republican and a tea party favorite.
That view could produce a rough tenure for the 6-foot-7 (2-meter) former pro football player, who just earned a coveted spot on the House Armed Services Committee, a fierce protector of military interests. The congressman's district is home to Fort Dix, which merged with neighboring McGuire Air Force Base and Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station to make the military's first three-branch base.
Runyan expects a committee fight over Gates' proposal to cancel a $14 billion program to develop the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle for the Marines and use that money to buy additional ships, F-18 jets and new electronic jammers. Already, several members of the panel, including the chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon of California, have signaled they will challenge Gates' move.
Runyan says he will decide after he's heard arguments from both sides.
No matter how much defense spending is trimmed, none of the cuts is likely to reduce the money that's available to the military to spend on the war fronts.
"We want to make sure men and women put in harm's way have the resources they need," said Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who recently traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan with several of his Republican colleagues, including a number of other freshmen. "That doesn't mean the entire defense budget has to be taken off the table," he added.
Several Republican lawmakers already have taken the first steps toward cutting defense.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas has proposed cutting total government spending by $153 billion, including deep reductions in defense and elimination of several weapons programs. Brady called it a "down payment" on getting the country's finances in order.
In an unusual political pairing, liberal Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a libertarian and former Republican presidential candidate, have joined forces in pushing for substantial reductions in the defense budget, including closing some of the 600-plus military bases overseas.
"I'll work with anybody," Frank said of the effort, which could attract other liberal Democrats who have tried for years to reduce post-Cold War military spending and tea party-backed Republicans.
The schism within the Republican ranks is philosophical as well as generational. Paul's son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, 48, a tea party favorite, says all spending should come under scrutiny, from food stamps for the poor to foreign aid to money for wars. Sen. John McCain, 74, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, worries about the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party.
For all the talk, one tea party group is willing to give lawmakers some leeway, provided that they adhere to the movement's values.
Sal Russo, chief strategist of the Tea Party Express, said the defense budget should be part of the calculation and his organization expects lawmakers to "responsibly bring spending down." He added that his group will give them "flexibility to do their job."
Tea party-backed Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina said lawmakers "at the end of the day, will take a look at all the fat in the budget." But he said it was premature with two wars to say how Congress will make the cuts. Scott has two brothers in the military
one in the Air Force, the other in the Army.
The tea party, which sprung up shortly after President Barack Obama took office, is a loose-knit coalition of community groups largely made up of people with conservative and libertarian views who say government has grown too large, threatening individual liberties. The tea partiers support cutting government spending and reducing taxes.
The movement's name is taken from the Boston Tea Party, a 1773 protest in which activists in the then-British colonies in America boarded ships and threw their cargo of English tea into Boston Harbor in a symbolic act of protest against taxes.
© 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. That demand is creating hard choices for the newest members of Congress, especially Republicans who owe their elections and solid House majority to the influential grass-roots movement. Cutting defense and canceling weapons could mean deep spending reductions and high marks from tea partiers as the U.S. wrestles with a $1.3 trillion deficit. Yet it also could jeopardize thousands of jobs when unemployment is running high.
Proponents of the cuts could also face criticism that they're trying to weaken national security in a post-Sept. 11 world.
House Republican leaders specifically exempted defense, homeland security and veterans' programs from spending cuts in their party's "Pledge to America" campaign manifesto last fall. But the House's new majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, has said defense programs could join others on the cutting board.
The defense budget is about $700 billion annually. Few in Congress have been willing to make cuts as U.S. troops fight in Afghanistan and wind up the operation in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a recent pre-emptive move, proposed $78 billion in spending cuts and an additional $100 billion in cost-saving moves. While that amounts to $13 billion less than the Pentagon wanted to spend in the coming year, it still stands as 3 percent growth after inflation is taken into account.
That's why tea party groups say if the government is going to cut spending, the military's budget needs to be part of the mix.
"The widely held sentiment among Tea Party Patriot members is that every item in the budget, including military spending and foreign aid, must be on the table," said Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. "It is time to get serious about preserving the country for our posterity. The mentality that certain programs are 'off the table' must be taken off the table."
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, leaders of the group FreedomWorks, which has backed the tea partiers, recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that "defense spending should not be exempt from scrutiny." On Gates' proposed savings of $145 billion over five years, they said, "That's a start."
Just about all Republicans - and plenty of Democrats, too - favor paring back spending. But when it comes to specific cuts - eliminating money for schools, parks, hospitals, highways and everything else - the decisions get difficult. Every government expenditure has its advocates and no one wants his or her program cut.
Fault lines have emerged within the Republican ranks over how deep to cut and where to whittle. In the coming weeks, lawmakers will feel the pressure from constituents and colleagues.
"Everything is ultimately on the table," said Rep. Jon Runyan of New Jersey, a freshman Republican and a tea party favorite.
That view could produce a rough tenure for the 6-foot-7 (2-meter) former pro football player, who just earned a coveted spot on the House Armed Services Committee, a fierce protector of military interests. The congressman's district is home to Fort Dix, which merged with neighboring McGuire Air Force Base and Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station to make the military's first three-branch base.
Runyan expects a committee fight over Gates' proposal to cancel a $14 billion program to develop the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle for the Marines and use that money to buy additional ships, F-18 jets and new electronic jammers. Already, several members of the panel, including the chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon of California, have signaled they will challenge Gates' move.
Runyan says he will decide after he's heard arguments from both sides.
No matter how much defense spending is trimmed, none of the cuts is likely to reduce the money that's available to the military to spend on the war fronts.
"We want to make sure men and women put in harm's way have the resources they need," said Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who recently traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan with several of his Republican colleagues, including a number of other freshmen. "That doesn't mean the entire defense budget has to be taken off the table," he added.
Several Republican lawmakers already have taken the first steps toward cutting defense.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas has proposed cutting total government spending by $153 billion, including deep reductions in defense and elimination of several weapons programs. Brady called it a "down payment" on getting the country's finances in order.
In an unusual political pairing, liberal Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a libertarian and former Republican presidential candidate, have joined forces in pushing for substantial reductions in the defense budget, including closing some of the 600-plus military bases overseas.
"I'll work with anybody," Frank said of the effort, which could attract other liberal Democrats who have tried for years to reduce post-Cold War military spending and tea party-backed Republicans.
The schism within the Republican ranks is philosophical as well as generational. Paul's son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, 48, a tea party favorite, says all spending should come under scrutiny, from food stamps for the poor to foreign aid to money for wars. Sen. John McCain, 74, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, worries about the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party.
For all the talk, one tea party group is willing to give lawmakers some leeway, provided that they adhere to the movement's values.
Sal Russo, chief strategist of the Tea Party Express, said the defense budget should be part of the calculation and his organization expects lawmakers to "responsibly bring spending down." He added that his group will give them "flexibility to do their job."
Tea party-backed Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina said lawmakers "at the end of the day, will take a look at all the fat in the budget." But he said it was premature with two wars to say how Congress will make the cuts. Scott has two brothers in the military
one in the Air Force, the other in the Army.
The tea party, which sprung up shortly after President Barack Obama took office, is a loose-knit coalition of community groups largely made up of people with conservative and libertarian views who say government has grown too large, threatening individual liberties. The tea partiers support cutting government spending and reducing taxes.
The movement's name is taken from the Boston Tea Party, a 1773 protest in which activists in the then-British colonies in America boarded ships and threw their cargo of English tea into Boston Harbor in a symbolic act of protest against taxes.
Popular in Politics
- FBI director acknowledges domestic drone use
- Obama and Berlin: Faded echoes meet new realities
- Smooth, on-time Obamacare rollout no sure thing: GAO
- House Republicans pass 20-week limit on abortions 359 Comments
- Obama on NSA programs: Americans "not getting the complete story" 256 Comments
- Senators: U.S. must take "more decisive" military action in Syria
- Obama renews push for a nuclear disarmament legacy
- GOP Sen. Murkowski backs same-sex marriage
After learning that between 2003-2006 the US Department of Defense spent 111 million dollars to buy and maintain 9 Gulfstream Jet for Egypt's President Mubarak so that he could travel in style, the American People demand to know why the new Republican proposal for Defense spending actually includes a 9 billion dollar INCREASE in defense spending over last year
Where are the cuts that were promised?????
In Jan. 2011 John Duncan, a Republican from Tennessee, said, "I want to add my voice to the growing chorus that is saying loud and clear that nothing should be left off the table. There is waste in every Federal department and agency, and the waste in the Defense and Homeland Security Departments is huge. No department should be given a free pass and made exempt from cost savings and belt-tightening."
Newly elected Republican Tea Party Rand Paul said "We will have to look long and hard at the military budget. The most important thing that our government does is our national defense, absolutely. But you cannot say that the doubling of the military budget in the last 10 years has all been spent wisely and there's not any waste in it.
And Back in 2010 Rep. Paul Ryan proclaimed "There are a lot of savings you can get in defense," he said. "There's a lot of waste over there, for sure."
BUT if you look at the newly Proposed Republican cutbacks....Defense actually gets 9 billion dollars more than last year.
Federal Government wastes too much money, has too many employees, is riddled with corruption and favoritism, overspends, lack of oversight...IN EVERY DEPARTMENT.
So it follows that the Biggest deparment of all..Defense..which spends the most money and has the most employees.....WASTES THE MOST AND NEEDS TO BE CUT ACCORDINGLY.
Old Guard Republicans just don't get it. The Tea Party movement grew out of disappointment with the way both Republican and Democratic Congresses have run things for the last 50 years.
The Tea Party movement expects everything to be on the table. Protecting your pet projects and programs are the way THINGS USE TO BE. NOT ANYMORE
Get it!!!!
variblespanner - The surpluses were only a bookkeeping trick. The National Debt grew every year Clinton was in office just as it has every year since the original debt ceiling was set in 1917. That is a fact and not an insult.
-----
Two Trillion in 8 years under Reagan, doubled to 2 trillion in 4 years by Bush the Elder, trimmed to two trillion in 8 years with decreases for over a decade under President Clinton, tripled to 6 Trillion over 8 years by Bush the Younger. Then we have the New Republican HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES rescinding the Health Care Reform act that began paying for am escalating Trillion Dollar every 10 year deficit call MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS passed as a bailout by a REPUBLICAN CONGRESS AND SIGNED INTO LAW BY THEN BUSH ADMINISTRATION. THE DEBT is representative of the "recreational drugs" the REPUBLICANS are providing to their corporate masters to maintain the REPUBLICAN preferred inflated bubble / burst economy.
You all are talking about Congress.
This country's government and corporate leaders have to keep looking forward and invest in new techonologies or we will be left behind (and loss of good paying jobs in the US). The 1973 oil crisis shows those who are prepared will take the lead when something like this happens. The Japanese had small more fuel efficient cars ready went this ocurred.
JOHN KENNEDY 9/12/1962
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
What are the ramifications of $2.5 Trillion in Federal spending? Will Congress be short sighted in what is cut?
The queen of the tea party is Palin, that says it all.
If you do care what the tea party says, that makes you an........
LOL
Cut congresses pay, and eliminate the congressional health insurance. At most each congressman should be forced to have the same medical coverage provided to their respective state employee or better yet, none like millions of Americans have today.
Leading by example will truly demonstrate the Tea-Partiers' convictions.
... Maybe the average American SHOULD get our hands on that bill and see exactly what Congress DID do. It's probably a lot worse than I thought.
----
Yet another ignorant Tea Party member that does not know about thomas.loc.gov, or is it that you cannot read or comprehend the contents of the website?