Republicans Ready To Cut All But The Pentagon

"Cut spending!" has been Congressional Republicans' battle cry this year. They have indeed managed to cut far more in the budget battles than Democrats might have wanted, but when it comes to the biggest chunk of spending that lawmakers actually do have a say over, the Pentagon budget, it's a different story. NPR's David Welna reports.

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The Congressional Republicans battle cry this year has been: cut spending. And they have managed to cut far more than the budget that Democrats might have wanted. But when it comes to the Pentagon's budget, the biggest chunk of spending that lawmakers control, it's a different story.

NPR's David Welna has it.

DAVID WELNA: Congress plans to spend just over a trillion dollars in the next fiscal year on all the federal programs it funds. And more than half of that would go to the Department of Defense. So you might think the Pentagon would be a fat target for cutting spending. And when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon gaveled in a marathon session on defense spending last week, he sounded ready to cut.

Representative BUCK MCKEON (R-CA, Chairman, Armed Services Committee): The 2012 defense bill reflects the fact that members of the Armed Services Committee, the broader Congress and the nation must make tougher choices in order to provide for America's common defense.

WELNA: But one tough choice that had already been made was quickly reversed. Back in February, a bipartisan majority in the House voted to cut off nearly a half-billion dollars in funding this year, to develop an alternative jet engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. That second engine, being developed by General Electric and Rolls-Royce, seemed dead at the time.

But Maryland Republican Roscoe Bartlett moved in the committee to revive it.

Representative ROSCOE BARTLETT (Republican, Maryland): Yes, our country faces major fiscal challenges. However, to continue to fully fund a $1 trillion F-35 aircraft program and not take the opportunity to maintain competition in a $110 billion engine subcontract to the program is not in the long-term best interest of F-35 readiness or the taxpayers.

WELNA: Bartlett said the engine's makers had promised to keep developing it at no cost to taxpayers, as long as they could have free access to the technology which belongs to the Pentagon. The Pentagon vehemently opposes the second engine program. But Chairman McKeon sided with Bartlett.

Rep. MCKEON: To me, this is a no-brainer.

WELNA: And so the revival of the second engine program was approved on a vote of 54-to-5. The panel's bill also calls for doubling, from three to six, the number of F-35 jump jets that the Pentagon had requested.

Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper reminded colleagues that the plane has been plagued with problems. He proposed adding just one more than the Pentagon had asked for and saving $380 million.

Representative JIM COOPER (Democrat, Tennessee): And I would just suggest until the mechanical and engineering difficulties are worked out here, and essentially we should fly these before we buy them. Investing before we test them is a highly risky strategy.

WELNA: But Cooper failed to sway Chairman McKeon and a cost-saving measure was resoundingly defeated. Later, I asked Cooper to size up the panels' voting trend.

Rep. COOPER: I'm afraid the overall vote boiled down to a vote of no-confidence in the Pentagon. And to have it so widely supported on the committee is pretty amazing.

WELNA: Do you think it reflects a certain reluctance to go along with the austerity plans of the Pentagon?

Rep. COOPER: I think it shows the power of lobbying in the Congress.

WELNA: Lobbying by contractors, plus defense industries spread across the electoral map, may explain why in the biggest area of spending Congress controls austerity is off the table. In fact, House Republicans aim to increase the Pentagon's budget by $17 billion next year, while every other agency faces deep cuts.

David Welna, NPR News, the Capital.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/15/136328609/republicans-ready-to-cut-everything-just-not-the-pentagon?ft=1&f=1017

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