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Mattis and Republicans to Trump: Don't cut defense
Source: Washington Post
Mattis and Republicans to Trump: Don’t cut defense
By Josh Rogin
Columnist
December 4 at 12:18 PM
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and two top Republican lawmakers will meet with President Trump. Their goal, several officials told me, is to persuade him not to cut the defense budget. They will argue that this would be dangerous for national security — as well as being bad politics.
Trump often brags that he has rebuilt the military after years of neglect by President Barack Obama. Yet his White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has required that all departments — including the Pentagon — cut 5 percent from their planned budgets for fiscal 2020. In the Oval Office Tuesday, Mattis will joined by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.). They want the Pentagon to be exempted from those cuts. They are fighting an uphill battle in explaining why $700 billion for the military in an age of fiscal austerity is not enough.
The Trump administration’s own plan was to increase the Pentagon’s budget from $716 billion in 2019 to $733 billion in 2020. Under the OMB plan, the Pentagon’s total down would go down to $700 billion. Inhofe and Thornberry argued last week in the Wall Street Journal that this cut would hurt military readiness and hurt the Pentagon’s efforts to prepare for threats of the future. Mattis endorsed their op-ed in a speech Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California.
“Fiscal solvency and strategic solvency can coexist,” Mattis said, referring to the Inhofe-Thornberry op-ed. He said cutting the defense budget “would be a dangerous disservice to our troops and the American people they serve and protect. We all know that America can afford survival."
-snip-
By Josh Rogin
Columnist
December 4 at 12:18 PM
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and two top Republican lawmakers will meet with President Trump. Their goal, several officials told me, is to persuade him not to cut the defense budget. They will argue that this would be dangerous for national security — as well as being bad politics.
Trump often brags that he has rebuilt the military after years of neglect by President Barack Obama. Yet his White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has required that all departments — including the Pentagon — cut 5 percent from their planned budgets for fiscal 2020. In the Oval Office Tuesday, Mattis will joined by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.). They want the Pentagon to be exempted from those cuts. They are fighting an uphill battle in explaining why $700 billion for the military in an age of fiscal austerity is not enough.
The Trump administration’s own plan was to increase the Pentagon’s budget from $716 billion in 2019 to $733 billion in 2020. Under the OMB plan, the Pentagon’s total down would go down to $700 billion. Inhofe and Thornberry argued last week in the Wall Street Journal that this cut would hurt military readiness and hurt the Pentagon’s efforts to prepare for threats of the future. Mattis endorsed their op-ed in a speech Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California.
“Fiscal solvency and strategic solvency can coexist,” Mattis said, referring to the Inhofe-Thornberry op-ed. He said cutting the defense budget “would be a dangerous disservice to our troops and the American people they serve and protect. We all know that America can afford survival."
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/04/mattis-republicans-trump-dont-cut-defense/
______________________________________________________________________
Source: Reuters
U.S. DECEMBER 4, 2018 / 10:42 AM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
U.S. defense budget below $733 billion would increase risk: official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon’s pick to be the next commander of U.S. Central Command said on Tuesday that a budget below $733 billion for fiscal year 2020 would increase the risk to the military.
“Anything below $733 (billion) would increase risk and that risk would be manifested across the force,” Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“We are in the process now, very carefully across the department, examining the details of what the nature of that risk would be,” he added.
U.S. President Donald Trump, faced with a budget deficit at a six-year high, has told his Cabinet to come up with proposals to cut spending by their agencies by 5 percent, but he suggested the military would be largely spared.
-snip-
U.S. defense budget below $733 billion would increase risk: official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon’s pick to be the next commander of U.S. Central Command said on Tuesday that a budget below $733 billion for fiscal year 2020 would increase the risk to the military.
“Anything below $733 (billion) would increase risk and that risk would be manifested across the force,” Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“We are in the process now, very carefully across the department, examining the details of what the nature of that risk would be,” he added.
U.S. President Donald Trump, faced with a budget deficit at a six-year high, has told his Cabinet to come up with proposals to cut spending by their agencies by 5 percent, but he suggested the military would be largely spared.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-budget/u-s-defense-budget-below-733-billion-would-increase-risk-official-idUSKBN1O31ZD
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