Politics

Bush: $5.7B For Military Pay

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 12, 2001 / 10:36 AM EST / CBS

Kicking off a three-day tour of U.S. military bases, President Bush on Monday proposed $5.7 billion in new spending to improve the quality of life of armed forces personnel.

"If our military is to attract the best of America, we owe you the best," Mr. Bush told hundreds of cheering Army troops at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

Low pay and poor housing are hurting all branches of the military, he said. "The result is predictable: frustration is up, morale in some places is difficult to sustain, recruitment is hurt."

That, Mr. Bush said, is not the way "a great nation should reward courage and idealism. It's ungrateful, it's unwise and it's unacceptable."

Mr. Bush's plan calls for a $1.4 billion pay raise in fiscal 2002, plus $400 million to improve housing and $3.9 billion in health benefits.

"The freedom and security you make possible improve the quality of our lives every day," Mr. Bush told the soldiers, who gathered on a base field on a cold, overcast day. "Our nation can never fully repay our debt to you, but we can give you our full support. And my administration will."

But while he was critical of his predecessor for choking off military funding, Mr. Bush plans to hold the line on spending next year to $310 billion, the same amount President Clinton proposed, reports CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts. And though more of that money will be earmarked for military pay raises, the increase is not dramatic.

To the surprise of some members of the Pentagon, Congress and the military industry, who say immediate spending increases are necessary, Mr. Bush has clamped a lid on any new spending other than the "quality of life" expenditures, pending a thorough review of the military by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Hoping to ease concerns about his commitment, senior administration officials have said they expect Mr. Bush to seek additional military funding after Rumsfeld's review is completed, most likely this summer.

"The first priority is to start with the men and women in uniform who are the backbone of our military," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told the CBS News' Early Show on Monday.

The president "will then turn his attention to military transformation and to our allies," Rice added. "He'll spend time later in the week with American diplomats to show American military power is not our only instrument."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Monday questioned Mr. Bush's decision to put off any immediate spending increase for maintenance and readiness programs, and contended the president's proposed tax cut would make it impossible to meet the nation's defense needs.

Lieberman, the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket last fall, urged Mr. Bush in a letter to "reconsider a tax cut that may rsult in a military less capable of overcoming the new and dangerous threats they may face in the coming years."

Monday's trip was Mr. Bush's first as president aboard the presidential jumbo jet Air Force One, and the first of three consecutive day trips this week to promote his military modernization agenda.

Mr. Bush has taken two short trips out of the capital since his Jan. 20 inauguration to attend meetings of Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

The president is also to travel to Norfolk Naval Air Station in Virginia Tuesday to highlight new developments in weapons research. Wednesday, he will meet reservists and National Guard forces at Charleston, West Virginia, in a focus on "citizen soldiers."