Boehner Reworking Plan; CBO Scores Greater Cuts in Reid Plan, But…
Reid gets more cuts by gouging DoD to the tune of more than $800 billion.
House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon has just sent around a memo to fellow Republicans on his committee, warning that Harry Reid’s debt ceiling budget plan (which has been endorsed by President Obama) drastically and dangerously slashes defense spending.
“Based on our analysis the proposal would result in $868 Billion in defense cuts over 10 years when weighed against the FY11 budget request,” McKeon writes. “Let me be clear, this is a real cut. It would have a disastrous impact on our military and we wouldn’t be able to carry out our missions.”
McKeon breaks down the numbers in the Reid-Obama plan, essentially saying that it’s worse than it might seem. “Immediately the plan would cut defense in real terms below the FY11-enacted level of $553 billion and hold defense below the FY11-enacted level through FY13. It represents a $16 billion cut to our FY12 levels for next year and a $26 billion cut for the following year.”
There’s no question that we have to cut everywhere, Defense included. But cutting DoD doesn’t fix the fundamentals. It’s entitlement spending that’s eating our budget alive, and Reid doesn’t go there. Neither does Boehner, really.
Word now is that there won’t be a vote on Boehner’s plan today, he is re-working it to build in more cuts to get to a vote tomorrow.
It seems to me that a good baseline would be to roll back all spending to, say, 2004 levels and then work from there. But neither plan is that ambitious. And as we’ve noted before, the White House doesn’t have a plan at all.
Is there ONE single person on this site surprised at Reid’s cuts? Obama would do away with the defense dept if he could get away with it. We all know that the Dems will NOT produce anything that shows any cuts to entitlement programs. They are cowards and they will demagogue any issue that might help them get re-elected with NO concern for our country. Yet there are 45-47% of voters that think they are doing a good job!
both sides are talking about cutting 1+ trillion over 10 years. We are currently running deficits of 1.5 Trillion PER YEAR. So these guys think reducing our annual deficit from 1.5 Trillion to 1 Trillion is going to save this country. Do they really think we are that stupid? We will still be borrowing a butt load of Chinese money that will nearly double the debt int he next 10 years.
How stupid do they think we are? Don’t answer that.
We need to keep the debt limit where it is and cut spending enough to stay under it and avoid default.
Yes, these cuts to Defense would compromise their ability to fulfill their missions. So cut back the damned missions. And then double these cuts. And then do the same thing to entitlements.
It’s time to get serious, and after following PorkBusters since Instapundit first started talking about them only to see Republicans increase government spending by historic levels, I have absolutely zero sympathy for them trying to politicize these cuts.
I knew Reid’s plan was BS when I saw immediate headlines in the MSM like “Republicans win” and “Democrats acquiesce to Republican demands”.
Obama has cut $400 billion from defense in the past three years alone. It has been on the table since he took office and our troops are the only place he is comfortable de-funding.
When Republicans play into Obama’s hands, by seriously discussing further defense cuts, we allow the President to distract from the real problem: entitlements.
We need to smarten up and get back to our principles. Low taxes, small government, strong national defense. Democrats win when they drive a wedge between us and National Security.
Good post Mr. Preston.
Bryan, would you include defense and other national security spending in your proposed rollback to 2004?