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Tea partiers say defense in mix for budget cuts<br>
By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press<br>
<br>
WASHINGTON – Back home, tea partiers clamoring for the debt-ridden
government to slash spending say nothing should be off limits. Tea
party-backed lawmakers echo that argument, and they're not exempting
the military's multibillion-dollar budget in a time of war.<br>
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 nation wrestles with a $1.3
trillion deficit. Yet it also could jeopardize thousands of jobs
when unemployment is running high.<br>
Proponents of the cuts could face criticism that they're trying to
weaken national security in a post-Sept. 11 world.<br>
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.<i> But the House's
new majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., has said defense
programs could join others on the cutting board.</i><br>
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 finish the operation in Iraq.<br>
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, <i>it still stands
as 3 percent growth after inflation is taken into account.</i><br>
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.<br>
<i>"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.</i> "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."<br>
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, leaders of
the group FreedomWorks, 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."<br>
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 advocate and no one wants his or her program
cut.<br>
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.<br>
"Everything is ultimately on the table," said Rep. Jon Runyan of New
Jersey, a freshman Republican and a tea party favorite.<br>
That view could produce a rough tenure for the 6-foot-7 former
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.<br>
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, R-Calif., have
signaled they will challenge Gates' move.<br>
Runyan says he will decide after he's heard arguments from both
sides.<br>
<i>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.<br>
</i>"We want to make sure men and women put in harm's way have the
resources they need," said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who recently
traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan with several of his GOP
colleagues, including a number of other freshmen. "That doesn't mean
the entire defense budget has to be taken off the table," he added.<br>
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate,
said he didn't think "anything ought to be off-limits for the effort
to reduce spending." He told "Fox News Sunday" that "I don't think
we ought to start out with the notion that a whole lot of areas in
the budget are exempt from reducing spending, which is what we
really need to do and do it quickly."<br>
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-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.<br>
<i>In an unusual political pairing, liberal Rep. Barney Frank,
D-Mass., 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.<br>
"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.<br>
</i>The schism within the GOP 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 to foreign aid to money for wars. Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., 74, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, worries about the rise
of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party.<br>
For all the talk, one tea party group is willing to give lawmakers
some leeway, provided that they adhere to the movement's values.<br>
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."<br>
Tea party-backed Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., 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.<br>
___<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110124/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tea_party_defense_cuts/print">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110124/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tea_party_defense_cuts/print</a><br>
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