Watch the press conference in story here.By Sen. John CornynTexas Insider Report: WASHINGTON DC The idea that Americas military should bear the brunt of federal budget cuts is both dangerous and illogical. Defense spending didnt cause our looming fiscal crisis so cutting it to the bone wouldnt solve that crisis. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that slashing an extra $600 billion dollars through sequestration would hollow out" the military and ultimately prove catastrophic" for American national security.
As the House Armed Services Committee chairman recently pointed out defense spending represents less than 20 of the federal budget" yet it accounts for more than 50 of our deficit-reduction efforts."
The Pentagon budget is already scheduled to decline substantially over the next decade.
And yet there are still folks in Congress who refuse to support entitlement reforms but insist on gutting our defense budget.
From a fiscal perspective that makes no sense. From a national-security perspective it is deeply alarming.
We should obviously be working to eliminate wasteful defense spending and we should obviously be pushing the Pentagon to improve its financial-management practices so that it can become audit ready" as soon as possible. Those are no-brainers.
At the same time we also have a strategic obligation to prepare for threats both known and unknown. As former Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously quipped
Our record of predicting where we will use military force since Vietnam is perfect -- we have never once gotten it right."
In early 2001 nobody in Washington thought that American troops would spend the next decade waging counterinsurgency warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the years ahead we will undoubtedly face serious national-security challenges from terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda rogue states such as North Korea and Iran and rising powers such as Communist China.
We will also face challenges that nobody was expecting.
With these threats in mind our two top Army officials Secretary John McHugh and his chief of staff General Ray Odierno have strongly opposed drastic cuts to U.S. ground forces.
Bottom line: The world is becoming a more dangerous place and future defense expenditures should be determined by U.S. national-security interests not by political needs on Capitol Hill.
Or as one analyst recently put it The mission should determine the budget; the budget should not determine the mission."
If we want this century to be another American century" we will have to maintain our commitment to a robust U.S. military that is capable of handling current and future global challenges.
By Sen. John Cornyn
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON DC The idea that Americas military should bear the brunt of federal budget cuts is both dangerous and illogical. Defense spending didnt cause our looming fiscal crisis so cutting it to the bone wouldnt solve that crisis. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that slashing an extra $600 billion dollars through sequestration would hollow out" the military and ultimately prove catastrophic" for American national security.
As the House Armed Services Committee chairman recently pointed out defense spending represents less than 20 of the federal budget" yet it accounts for more than 50 of our deficit-reduction efforts."
The Pentagon budget is already scheduled to decline substantially over the next decade.
And yet there are still folks in Congress who refuse to support entitlement reforms but insist on gutting our defense budget.
From a fiscal perspective that makes no sense. From a national-security perspective it is deeply alarming.
We should obviously be working to eliminate wasteful defense spending and we should obviously be pushing the Pentagon to improve its financial-management practices so that it can become audit ready" as soon as possible. Those are no-brainers.
At the same time we also have a strategic obligation to prepare for threats both known and unknown. As former Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously quipped
political needs on Capitol Hill.
Or as one analyst recently put it The mission should determine the budget; the budget should not determine the mission."
If we want this century to be another American century" we will have to maintain our commitment to a robust U.S. military that is capable of handling current and future global challenges.
