Posted on 01/28/2010 2:37:13 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Thursday morning she could support a version of the president’s proposed spending freeze that included defense spending.
Pelosi stressed at her weekly press conference that the entire defense budget “should not be exempted” from the freeze, as proposed by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address Wednesday night. She added such “drastic action” might be necessary to tame the nation's growing, $1.3 trillion federal deficit.
The Pentagon suffers from costly, wasteful programs that could produce savings, Pelosi said.
But the Speaker drew a sharp line between support for the troops, and support for military contractors. She said men and women in uniform should not be subject to a freeze, but that “I don’t think that we have to protect military contractors.”
“And I want to make that distinction very clearly,” Pelosi continued. “I do not think the entire defense budget should be exempted.”
“We want them to have everything they need,” Pelosi said of military forces abroad and their families. “But we do not support an entitlement program for overruns in defense contracting,” she quickly added, noting millions could be saved if lawmakers ensured Defense contracts did not overshoot spending targets.
Pentagon acquisition programs have suffered from huge cost overruns.
A March 2009 GAO report found that the Pentagon’s 96 largest weapon acquisition programs had cost overruns of $296 billion and were on average 22 months behind schedule. Those cost overruns exceed the salaries and health care costs for the entire military for the two full years.
Obama’s proposed spending freeze would not cover the Pentagon.
It would cap spending at current levels for all discretionary areas of the budget — about one-sixth of what Congress authorizes every year. The move is expected to save about $250 billion over the next three years, White House officials have said.
Obama’s general push for fiscal discipline has won the praise of all lawmakers, but many seemed to differ this week on how to approach it.
Republicans criticized the president's call for a freeze on Wednesday, charging it arrives only after Democrats enacted huge spending increases. Some Democrats even worry it could touch areas that desperately need funding during a period of economic decline.
“We’ll have to look see what the president’s talking about cutting,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday. “We have to make sure that we have money for education, and also police services and firefighting among other things."
Extending the freeze to defense spending could invoke the ire of lawmakers who maintain that military dollars should be left untouched in times of war.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told The Hill on Thursday that lawmakers should instead “scrub the budget,” as they do every year, in order to eliminate any waste.
"I think it's probably impractical and unrealistic in the middle of a war,” Levin said of freezing spending in the Defense budget.
“I think you can target particular programs, but that means you've got to do it program by program; you can't just put a cap on it in the middle of a war because if you don't reach that, then what do you do? Cut across the board?"
For Pelosi, the spending freeze, and whether at least some Defense spending should be a part of it, introduces another complex battle for her party.
Centrist Democrats worried about the mid-term elections are taking heat for Washington spending, but liberal Democrats worry a spending freeze could hurt constituents and cut off help to people suffering through the recession.
10 more months Nancy.
10 more months....
Fine. Then bring them home and don’t send any more. She can’t have it both ways. Defecate or get off the pot, Nan.
Hey Nancy didn’t you hear your boss last night? He will do what he wants with a Executive Order!
“We have to make sure that we have money for education, and also police services and firefighting among other things.”
federal teachers and federal policemen and federal firefighters?
Well, they’ve already effectively frozen military pay.
Active base pay will only rise 1.4%, and retired pay was frozen. So, essentially, anyone active or retired will find their take-home pay to be less this year. Thanks, Obama.
Pelosi’s supporters don’t know the difference, and that’s what she’s counting on.
Freeze everything - Soc. Sec., Medicaid, all discretionary spending, defense,
EVERYTHING.
“Pelosi would back spending freeze if it also applies to defense”
Please, let Nancy be mid point of the lower tier of I-880 during the next big earthquake in the Bay Area. I truly hate that evil, corrosive creature.
And who in the hell does Saint Nancy think provides our warriors with the equipment they need? The Tooth Fairy?
Yes there are bad apples in the contracting business, but the majority are following the rules set by the govt. Many of these companies are staffed in a major way by former military. And believe me they bust their butts to give the war fighter what he needs.
Nancy, NOTHING is getting frozen this year and YOU won’t be speaker next year, so don’t bother making plans for us.
Go for it, Nancy. Not enough people hate liberals yet.
I’d back the freeze if it exterminated Pelosi. She is taking up too much oxygen
Morons like pelozi don’t realize that the military protects HER and her constituants. What an arrogant doofus.
This woman is...INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL! I back that also!
Hey Nancy! How bout we start by cutting your airforce jet?
What a lot of big talk. She’ll do precisely what her master tells her to do.
Nancy, let the freeze also include congressional perks, salaries, retirement, and health-care benefits.
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