On the recordJanuary 25, 2011
Earlier this year, I was pleased to cast a vote that would reduce the legislative appropriation as a symbol that no part of the budget should be off limits as we attempt to deal with the issues of government efficiency and deficit reduction. The resolution before Congress today directs the Budget Committee Chairman to reduce non-security spending to FY 2008 levels or less for the remainder of FY 2011. I would hope that having demonstrated that even the legislature itself is not exempt, that the Republican leadership would reconsider its decision to declare off limits the major areas of government spending, particularly the Department of Defense. If we are truly to improve our fiscal condition, no part of the budget should be off limits. The Pentagon cannot be left out. We can no longer separate national security from fiscal responsibility. Speaker Boehner has himself said that there is room to find savings in the defense budget. Even without including the costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. defense spending is the highest it has been at any time since the end of World War II. It is greater than at the peak of the Cold War. Yet we continue to spend billions to protect West Germany from the Soviet Union even though both ceased to exist decades ago. Our defense budget accounts for half of global military spending and consumes more than 50 cents of every dollar of federal government discretionary spending.
