M. President – I have always said that being a super power means more than super military might; it means super diplomacy, super restraint and super fiscal responsibility.
Admiral Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff once said that the greatest threat to our national security is our debt – not another nation, not another army, not the fear of another attack.
The US has – and will continue to have – the greatest military in the world. But in order to remain the most powerful, we have to get our financial house in order.
That is why I fully support Senator Reed’s amendment to block any extra war funding until budget caps for domestic programs are lifted.
Ensuring the safety of the American people does not mean increasing defense spending to fund never-ending wars in the Middle East while ignoring non-defense programs that are also crucial to our national security.
For years, critical non-defense programs, such as the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, have been forced to absorb damaging across-the-board cuts.
While we continue to keep in place budget caps for these agencies, we have underhandedly gone around spending limits and improperly increased war funding.
The most recent gimmick is an attempt to transfer roughly $39 billion from the base budget to the OCO budget to increase funding for overseas conflict.
I have said time and again that after over a decade of war in the Middle East costing more than $1.6 trillion dollars, does anyone still believe we can change the Middle East with money and military might?
If money and might were enough, we’d already have solved the problems in that part of the world.
What’s more is that we are denying this funding from other important programs that desperately need those funds to keep out country stable, safe and secure.
In order to be truly secure, we need our non-DOD departments and agencies to be able to function at full capacity.
The Pentagon simply cannot meet the complex set of national security challenges without the help of other government departments and agencies.
As retired Marine Corps General Mattis said, “If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.”
And last week showed how vulnerable our networks are to cyber attacks from foreign nations and those who wish us harm.
Our national security is also inherently tied to our economic security. Failures to invest in programs like STEM education and infrastructure projects are short-sighted.
Failing to provide BCA cap relief to non-DOD departments and agencies would also shortchange our veterans who receive employment services, transition assistance, and housing/homeless support through other agencies such as the Department of Labor.
The bottom line is that we need a long-term budget that reduces the deficit.
And increasing OCO money only hurts that goal.
Defense budgeting needs to be based on our long-term military strategy, which requires the DOD to focus at least five years into the future.
A one-year plus up to OCO does not provide DOD with the certainty and stability it needs when building its five-year budget.
The fiscally responsible approach we need to take is fixing the BCA caps for both defense and non-defense funding focus on reducing our overall spending.
But I’m not suggesting we simply increase spending across-the-board.
Our national debt is not a Democratic problem or Republican problem, it’s an American problem.
In 2008, our country faced one of the worst financial crises in our nation’s history.
We added a trillion dollars to our debt – on top of the trillions of dollars already spent on two costly wars and the Bush tax cuts, which President Obama extended twice.
Between the wars, the tax cuts, the recession and our out of control spending, our nation’s debt exploded from $5 trillion to $18 trillion.
Currently, our deficits are decreasing, from over $1.4 trillion in 2009 to $486 billion this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and it’s expected to remain stable for the next couple years.
The bad news is that after 2017, our deficits are projected to increase to over $1 trillion in 2025.
Unless Congress can put aside partisan politics and put this country on a fiscally sustainable path, we will add over $7.5 trillion to our debt in the next 10 years.
But we have to be smart about how we reduce spending.
As we saw in 2013, sequestration’s indiscriminate, across the board cuts harmed good and bad programs alike, did nothing to reduce waste and abuse, and caused individuals to be furloughed or lose their jobs.
While it is essential that we reduce the deficit, it should not be done so in a way that guts precious resources for children, seniors, or our veterans.
I have pushed hard for a bipartisan compromise that would reduce spending, fix our broken tax system, and reform entitlement programs in order to reduce our debt and provide the economy with certainty and stability.
For instance, we could enact $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years if we follow the Simpson-Bowles plan.
It is an all-encompassing approach that raises revenue and promotes growth through comprehensive tax reform that brings our tax code into the modern age –increasing efficiency and simplifying the process for both individuals and businesses.
Additionally, the plan enacts serious entitlement reform and makes additional targeted spending cuts aimed at long term-deficit reduction so that we can encourage economic growth and protect our most vulnerable.
It’s crucial that we make the necessary reforms that will make this nation a better place for this generation and future generations to come.
With that being said, I again express my support for Senator Reed’s amendment to the defense budget that would block any additional war funding until we get serious about developing a budget that funds our priorities and invests in both defense and non-defense programs that benefit our country.
