[Peace-discuss] It's a Great Day to Act to Cut the Pentagon Budget

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/17/1110886/-It-s-a-Great-Day-to-Act-to-Cut-the-Pentagon-Budget

This week, a series of showdowns is expected in the House over the
Pentagon budget, when House Members vote on amendments to the Defense
Appropriations Bill to cut the overall level of military spending, end
or limit the war in Afghanistan, and draw down troops permanently
stationed in Europe.

What happens in these votes will have a big influence on the expected
negotiations over replacing the impending "sequester" automatic cuts
of the Budget Control Act with a package of revenue increases and
spending cuts. If you want cuts in military spending to be on the
table, now is the time to speak up.

Until now, the bigfoot military contractors and their most stalwart
allies in Congress have fought with great success to keep real cuts in
military spending away from the table. What has mostly happened until
now is that most of the previously projected increases in spending
have been cut, so that under the President's plan military spending
would rise roughly with inflation. It's an important start, certainly,
to stop the previously projected increase, but it's not a real cut
from past spending levels. If the automatic cuts were to go through,
that would cause a real cut in military spending, although military
spending would still be above what it was during the Cold War. But the
conventional wisdom is that the automatic cuts won't happen; at the
end of the day, they will be replaced by a package of revenue
increases and spending cuts.

The question is what is going to be in that package.

Until now, the GOP leadership position has been that cuts in military
spending are off the table.

Until now, the Democratic leadership position has been more murky. The
Democratic leadership - and the big Democratic constituency groups
-have emphasized the need for revenue increases. But no-one thinks the
final deal is going to meet deficit reduction targets with revenue
increases alone. That means that there are still going to be cuts, and
those cuts are going to be cuts in military spending or they are going
to be cuts in domestic spending. Every dollar that isn't cut from the
military budget is going to be cut from the domestic budget.

So you might think that Democratic leaders and the big Democratic
constituency groups - who don't want to cut the domestic budget -
would be very vocal right now about the need to cut the military
budget.

If so, so far you'd be wrong. Until now, the Democratic leadership has
been mostly quiet about the need for military cuts. What they're
afraid of is all the money the military contractors have to throw
around on lobbying and political ads. And of course, the military
contractors' money is our money - our tax dollars that have made the
military contractors fat, money that they are now using to lobby
against putting them on a very modest diet.

People often get cynical when they think about all that money sloshing
around. What's the point of writing and calling my Representative in
Congress? They're not going to listen to me. They're going to listen
to the money. You can't beat City Hall.

But the fact of the matter is that you can beat City Hall. It's been
done before. The interests of the few will tend to beat out the
interests of the many when the many are unorganized and not mobilized.
When the many are mobilized and organized they can turn things around.
That happened on SOPA and SIPA. It happened on the Tar Sands pipeline.
Eventually it happened on the Iraq war. The narrow interests of the
few were defeated by the broad interests of the many.

Why not on the military budget? Let's raise a ruckus and see what happens.

Right now, today, we can start to turn this around. If we can get a
majority of Members of the House to vote for any cut in military
spending at all, that will be a key benchmark for future negotiations.
If we can get the majority of the House Democratic Caucus to vote for
a deeper cut, that will be another key benchmark for future
negotiations.

An amendment to cut $1.1 billion - a freeze at FY2012 levels - is
expected to be offered by Mick Mulvaney [R-SC] and Barney Frank
[D-MA]. This very modest amendment stands the best chance of passing.
Compared to the Pentagon budget, this would be a very modest cut, a
fraction of a percent. But when you compare it to domestic spending
cuts being considered - like spending on food stamps - $1.1 billion is
real money.

An amendment is expected to cut roughly $7 billion to align the bill
to spending caps under the Budget Control Act. This will be a key
test. Who is really concerned about the deficit, and who is just
looking for an excuse to cut programs that benefit the majority of
Americans? There was a Congressional deal to cut spending, and the
current level of military spending breaks the deal. If Congress can't
be held to the level of military spending that it already agreed in
the Budget Control Act, that doesn't bode well for the negotiations
ahead on replacing the automatic cuts to come. If Democrats can't be
held to backing the caps on military spending in the Budget Control
Act, that is even worse. But if Democrats can be held to this, then it
is more likely that in the negotiations they can be held to the
principle that there should be at least one dollar in military cuts
for every dollar in domestic cuts. And if we can get a substantial
bloc of Republicans to break ranks with the leadership on holding
military spending to the Budget Control Act caps, the vote would be
close, and the amendment might even pass; that would set a very good
precedent for the negotiations.

An amendment to cut $19 billion - corresponding to program cuts
proposed by Project on Defense Alternatives and the Cato Institute -
is expected from Barbara Lee. If this amendment wins support from the
majority of Democrats and a smattering of Republicans, it will put
these cuts on the table for serious consideration.

Your Representative, by voting for amendments that cut the Pentagon
budget, will be putting Pentagon cuts on the table for the final
negotiations. And that will help protect domestic spending.

Then there is the question of the war in Afghanistan.

Barbara Lee is expected to offer an amendment to cut all funding for
the war except for what is needed for a safe and responsible drawdown.
Almost the entire House Democratic Caucus and two dozen Republicans
are on record saying that they want to end the war. This vote will be
a test of how many are now willing to back their demand to end the war
by a vote to cut money for it.

Walter Jones and Rosa DeLauro are expected to offer an amendment
preventing the use of funds past 2014 in support of any mission that
does not have explicit Congressional approval. This will be a test of
whether Congress can force the 2014 timeline for when (most?) "combat"
troops are expected be withdrawn to become a real deadline for ending
the war.

In addition, an amendment is expected to force the Pentagon to draw
down troops "permanently stationed" in Europe. How much money this
would actually save is a matter of murky dispute; during the wars, a
lot of the troops weren't in Europe anyway because they were off
fighting the wars. But regardless of how you count the actual savings,
the principle is clear cut: seventy years after the end of World War
II, we shouldn't be paying for a major permanent deployment of U.S.
troops in Europe.

We are in a historically new situation. In the past, the interests of
the majority in cutting military spending were not so direct, because
the bloated military budget was financed by borrowing. Now a dollar
that isn't cut from the military budget is a dollar that will be cut
from the domestic budget. If you don't want food stamps to be cut, if
you don't want funding for mothers' and infants' nutrition to be cut,
if you don't want Social Security benefits to be cut,write and call
your Representative  and urge a yes vote on amendments to cut the
military budget.

Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy.


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