Herb Kohl: “No one has explained to me how we can maintain these high levels of defense spending and reduce the deficit. We cannot…”

“No one has explained to me how we can maintain these high levels of defense spending and reduce the deficit. We cannot continue to spare the Defense Department from the deep regimen of cuts we are asking the rest of our society to absorb. If we are committed to reducing the deficit and balancing our budget, we must make the hard votes. I know for some this will be a hard vote. However, I urge my colleagues to vote for this responsible approach to defense spending. We are writing to express our strong concern about the Defense Department proposal to spend some $30.5 billion dollars in "inflation savings" realized because of lower inflation estimates over the next five years. We urge you to raise this issue during your hearings on the FY 97 budget and to direct these funds toward deficit reduction. Inflation estimates used by the Defense Department over the years have been grossly inaccurate. In the 1980's, overestimates of inflation resulted in a $50 billion windfall. That money disappeared. Then two years ago, the Defense Department told Congress that it had underestimated inflation and needed another $20 billion to execute future defense programs. Now, just two years later, the Defense Department is telling us that it has once again overestimated inflation--this time to the tune of $45.7 billion.”