Opinion: Put security before random cuts
It’s often been said that “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And this has never been truer than with our national defense, which should be based on threats, not politics.
In securing our nation, we need to look back no further than the end of the Cold War, when we attempted to cash in on a “peace dividend” with significantly reduced defense budgets. Reductions were made quickly, not smartly. And because of these drastic, fast-paced decisions, our defense force structure was marginally maintained at the expense of training and modernization, resulting in the problematic “hollow force” phenomenon. So we have spent much of the past 10 years — while also in the midst of two wars — trying to rebuild what should never have been torn down.
Should the supercommittee on deficit reduction fail to produce $1.2 trillion in savings as outlined in the Budget Control Act, automatic budget sequestration will reduce national defense investment in our armed services by almost 25 percent over 10 years. If this occurs, we are doomed to repeat the mistake of the “peace dividend.”
Decisions about our national defense budget must be made based on real threats to our security — now and in the future — and what capabilities it takes to counter them. At no time should the defense budget be based on political decisions or arbitrary funding targets plucked from the air. Military budget decisions should be made to match the threats to our safety and security, threats that are determined from a strong and robust intelligence community.
The nation now finds itself in the most troubling economic time since the Great Depression. Every American and every federal agency is being asked to make tough sacrifices, and the Defense Department should be no exception. As chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I have asked my panel members and staff to scrub the accounts under our jurisdiction to find efficiencies, unexpended funds, underperforming programs and underutilized operational funding to find savings and make the most out of every defense dollar.
We have done our homework and made some tough decisions this year to rein in spending. In fact, the fiscal year 2011 defense budget request we received from President Barack Obama — excluding military construction and family housing programs — totaled $531 billion. By the time that was enacted into law, the president’s request had been reduced by $18 billion to $513 billion. Despite the significant reduction, we were able to produce a bill without affecting readiness or our commitment to provide for our military and their families.
We find ourselves in a similar situation as we prepare for fiscal year 2012. Under the president’s fiscal year 2012 request, defense would be funded at $539 billion. But after the passage of the Budget Control Act, we know that funding level must be reduced…