[Peace-discuss] Rep. Tim Johnson calls for cuts to projected military budget

Tue Oct 11 18:56:01 CDT 2011

>From Barbara Lee's office

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 4:08 PM
Subject: Update on Supercommittee Letter on Defense

 Hello all,

The letter to the Supercommittee on Defense spending reform closes this
week.  Right now we have 34 offices on board, but it would be really
fantastic to get as large, bipartisan set of signers on board before the
letter closes on Thursday at 12:00 pm.

Please do all you can to spread the word and encourage your folks to help
seize this unique opportunity to reduce Defense Spending!

Thanks all,

-Teddy

Join Bipartisan Colleagues Calling for Common Sense Defense Spending Reforms
from the “Supercommittee”

Current Signers (34): *Braley, *Campbell, *Clarke (NY), Conyers, Edwards,
Ellison, Filner, Frank, Grijalva, Holt, Honda, Jackson Jr., Johnson (IL),
Lee, Lewis (GA), Maloney, Markey, McDermott, Moore, Norton, Olver, *Paul*,
Payne, Polis, Rangel, Rush, Schakowsky, Serrano, Speier, Stark, Towns,
Welch, Woolsey, Yarmuth, *

*-DEADLINE: CLOSES AT NOON ON THURSDAY, OCT. 13 -*
Dear Colleague,

As the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the ‘Supercommittee’,
seeks out savings and works to end wasteful spending throughout the federal
budget, it is critical that all federal agencies, including the Department
of Defense, are subject to the same level of scrutiny and consideration.
Significant savings can be realized without compromising our national
security.

One of the main drivers of our deficit is military spending and it must be
on the table for the committee to consider as they seek to reduce our
deficit.

Please join us in calling for the Supercommittee to consider savings
opportunities throughout our defense spending.

Please note that the letter specifically rejects any cuts that would
compromise the security of American troops in the field, as well as any cuts
in services and increases in fees for our veterans and military retirees.

The deadline for joining the letter is this Thursday.

Sincerely

Barbara Lee                                                     John
Campbell
Member of Congress                                               Member of
Congress

Barney Frank                                                    Ron Paul
Member of Congress                                              Member of
Congress

Gwen Moore                                                      Rush Holt
Member of Congress                                              Member of
Congress

October __, 2011
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Chairman Mark Prater
Senator Patty Murray (Co-Chair)
Senator Max Baucus
Senator John Kerry
Senator Jon Kyl
Senator Pat Toomey
Senator Rob Portman
Representative Jeb Hersarling (Co-Chair)
Representative James Clyburn
Representative Xavier Becerra
Representative Chris Van Hollen
Representative Dave Camp
Representative Fred Upton

Dear Members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction:

As you begin your work, we respectfully suggest reexamining our defense and
security spending priorities as pathways to reducing our deficit and debt.
You have been tasked with finding at least $1.5 trillion in deficit
reductions over a ten-year period by November 23 of this year.  You have a
unique opportunity to bring our defense spending in line with our legitimate
national defense needs while getting our nation on the path to a balanced
budget free of deficit.  As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted
last year, paraphrasing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “The United States
should spend as much as necessary on national defense, but not one penny
more.”

In the ten years since the 9/11 attacks, spending on defense and security
has increased 96% and totaled almost $8 trillion.  The wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan have cost $1.36 trillion, and taken the lives of over six
thousand men and women while leaving over thirty thousand wounded.  In the
same time frame, the base budget for the Pentagon has mushroomed to $5.6
trillion.

As the 9/11 attacks demonstrated, the kinds of threats we face today are
very different than those of previous eras. We live in an age where a few
determined individuals with minimal financing, good planning and training,
and a willingness to die can inflict billions of dollars in damage and kill
thousands in a matter of hours. None of the billions of dollars of Cold
War-era weaponry in our arsenal on September 11, 2001 stopped Al-Qaeda.

The continued reliance on Cold War weaponry and conventional tactics two
decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet
Union makes little strategic or fiscal sense.  The June 2010 report of the
Sustainable Defense Task Force detailed proposals to reduce our nuclear
stockpile substantially, realizing savings of over $100 billion without
compromising our national security. See “Debt, Deficits, and Defense: A Way
Forward” at http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf  The report
proposed over $960 billion in defense department savings over the next
decade.

Significant savings could also be realized by auditing the Pentagon and
requiring that it produce financial documents like any private sector
business.  Waste, fraud and abuse are endemic at the Pentagon, with the
recent report from the General Accountability Office detailing hundreds of
billions of dollars in duplicative programs with little oversight. See full
March 1, 2011 GAO report “Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in
Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue” at:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11318sp.pdf  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
have been characterized by poor planning, no-bid contracts, and lack of
oversight leading to massive cost overruns.  In August, the Commission on
Wartime Contracting released its final report finding that an estimated $30
and $60 billion has been wasted during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This level of mismanagement is simply unacceptable. See full August 2011
Commission report “Transforming Wartime Contracting: Controlling Costs,
reducing risks” at:
http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/docs/CWC_FinalReport-lowres.pdf

There are multiple reforms proposed that would save hundreds of billions of
dollars over the next decade.  The Bowles-Simpson commission outlined $750
billion in suggested defense cuts in the next decade.  Former Assistant
Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb has proposed $1 trillion in cuts to the
Pentagon over the next 10-12 years.  These reductions in defense spending
would come out of $6.5 trillion in proposed spending between 2011 and 2020.

We are not urging reductions that in any way would cut resources and
supplies necessary to protect American troops in the field. Similarly, while
we are not opposed to an honest look at efforts at reforming the way that
the Department of Defense provides health care and other services to
personnel, we are opposed to cuts in services and increased fees for our
veterans and military retirees.

Our economic recovery is vital to our strategic interests.  The Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, has warned that ongoing
debt accumulation is undermining our economic strength and threatening our
national security.  Taking serious steps to resolve our fiscal imbalance
must include the Pentagon’s budget, which should be subject to the same
scrutiny as the rest of our discretionary budget as you look for savings.
As Members on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, we urge you
to think openly and act boldly to reduce our deficit and get our nation back
on the right track.  Bringing our defense spending in line with our
legitimate security needs must be considered along with other measures to
regain our economic footing.

*Connect with Congresswoman Barbara Lee*
 <http://lee.house.gov/>
<http://www.youtube.com/user/RepLee><http://www.facebook.com/RepBarbaraLee?ref=ts><http://twitter.com/RepBarbaraLee><http://lee.house.gov/common/rss/?rss=57>
*Click Here to Sign Up for
Leemail!*<http://lee.congressnewsletter.net/mail/util.cfm?mailaction=profile>

-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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