June 8, 2010 (3 hours ago reported)
Voinovich back from Iraq.
On a trip last week with other lawmakers to Iraq, Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. Ambassador Chris Hill to discuss Iraqi efforts to form a new government in the aftermath of the March elections.
The trip, which for security reasons was not announced until after Voinovich returned to Washington, included stops in Kuwait and Africa. Among lawmakers on the trip were Republican Sens. James Inhofe and John Barrasso of Wyoming.
Maliki has been embroiled in a dispute with former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi over which one will form the new government. In the March parliamentary elections, Allawi won 91 seats as head of a Sunni-Arab bloc, while Maliki and his Shiite allies won 89.
Voinovich back from Iraq.
On a trip last week with other lawmakers to Iraq, Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. Ambassador Chris Hill to discuss Iraqi efforts to form a new government in the aftermath of the March elections.
The trip, which for security reasons was not announced until after Voinovich returned to Washington, included stops in Kuwait and Africa. Among lawmakers on the trip were Republican Sens. James Inhofe and John Barrasso of Wyoming.
Maliki has been embroiled in a dispute with former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi over which one will form the new government. In the March parliamentary elections, Allawi won 91 seats as head of a Sunni-Arab bloc, while Maliki and his Shiite allies won 89.
also possible discussions on ...
June 7, 2010
Tom Coburn, Jim Inhofe (who was in Iraq above article) differ on defense budget
Coburn says Pentagon needs budget "freeze” to get books in order
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Coburn, who has been attacking waste and fraud in federal health care and dozens of other government programs, has turned his sights on the Pentagon, which has been plagued for years by huge cost overruns in weapons purchases and by accounting systems that defy auditors' efforts to track spending.
Coburn, a Muskogee Republican and a member of a special deficit commission, delivered a memo to the panel late last month outlining a "depressing array” of financial problems in the Defense Department and calling for a freeze on some spending until the Pentagon can get its books in order.
In a separate statement related to an emergency funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Coburn criticized "the vast amount of waste, inefficiency and sheer stupidity in the defense budget” and said the "Pentagon's finances are so poorly managed, they can't be audited.”
In the same week Coburn called for a freeze in the Pentagon's base budget, his Oklahoma colleague, Sen. Jim Inhofe, said the military was being underfunded.
Inhofe, R-Tulsa, defended some of the same weapons systems questioned by Coburn and said a failure to keep defense spending at a certain threshold in relation to the nation's economic output would "undercut national security.”
Inhofe disagrees
In an interview, Inhofe, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Pentagon "is not where the spending problem is.”
The mounting debt is the result of programs like Medicare and a stimulus bill that added nearly $800 billion to the deficit, Inhofe said.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, whose district includes Tinker Air Force Base and Fort Sill, said Coburn and Inhofe are both right.
"In the big picture I agree with Senator Inhofe,” said Cole, who has been involved in defense policy as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee.
"The defense budget is too low given the threats we have and the problems we have in (buying new weapons). That doesn't mean we're doing it as efficiently as we could. We're certainly not.”
Cole said the cost overruns in buying new planes and other weapons systems "are horrific” but that he was more worried about spending in other parts of the government. The stimulus bill, he said, should have allocated a major portion to acquiring new weapons. Instead, he said, the military got about $2 billion out of the $787 billion allocated.
"We're spending on everything but defense in this administration,” Cole said.
Budget proposal
The president has proposed a base budget for the Pentagon of $549 billion for the next fiscal year, up from $531 billion in the current year. Counting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the president has proposed spending $719 billion next year on defense.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has also been speaking out about his department's spending.
In a speech last month in Kansas, Gates said progress has been made "since the days of $800 hammers” but that more needs to be done. The "gusher” of defense spending since the attacks of 9/11, he said, has been turned off and it is time for the department to take a hard look at "every aspect of how it does business.”
Political decisions
Gates also pointed to political decisions made in Congress to support things the Pentagon doesn't want, and he noted the struggle over the C-17 cargo plane.
In a separate statement related to an emergency funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Coburn criticized "the vast amount of waste, inefficiency and sheer stupidity in the defense budget” and said the "Pentagon's finances are so poorly managed, they can't be audited.”
In the same week Coburn called for a freeze in the Pentagon's base budget, his Oklahoma colleague, Sen. Jim Inhofe, said the military was being underfunded.
Inhofe, R-Tulsa, defended some of the same weapons systems questioned by Coburn and said a failure to keep defense spending at a certain threshold in relation to the nation's economic output would "undercut national security.”
Inhofe disagrees
In an interview, Inhofe, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Pentagon "is not where the spending problem is.”
The mounting debt is the result of programs like Medicare and a stimulus bill that added nearly $800 billion to the deficit, Inhofe said.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, whose district includes Tinker Air Force Base and Fort Sill, said Coburn and Inhofe are both right.
"In the big picture I agree with Senator Inhofe,” said Cole, who has been involved in defense policy as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee.
"The defense budget is too low given the threats we have and the problems we have in (buying new weapons). That doesn't mean we're doing it as efficiently as we could. We're certainly not.”
Cole said the cost overruns in buying new planes and other weapons systems "are horrific” but that he was more worried about spending in other parts of the government. The stimulus bill, he said, should have allocated a major portion to acquiring new weapons. Instead, he said, the military got about $2 billion out of the $787 billion allocated.
"We're spending on everything but defense in this administration,” Cole said.
Budget proposal
The president has proposed a base budget for the Pentagon of $549 billion for the next fiscal year, up from $531 billion in the current year. Counting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the president has proposed spending $719 billion next year on defense.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has also been speaking out about his department's spending.
In a speech last month in Kansas, Gates said progress has been made "since the days of $800 hammers” but that more needs to be done. The "gusher” of defense spending since the attacks of 9/11, he said, has been turned off and it is time for the department to take a hard look at "every aspect of how it does business.”
Political decisions
Gates also pointed to political decisions made in Congress to support things the Pentagon doesn't want, and he noted the struggle over the C-17 cargo plane.
"The leadership of the Air Force is clear,” he said. "They do not need and cannot afford more C-17s.”
Inhofe is among those lawmakers who want more C-17s. But, in a news release, he didn't mention objections from Gates or the Air Force; instead, he blamed President Barack Obama and Democrats for trying to end production of the plane.
In their recent comments, Inhofe, Coburn and Gates have addressed fundamental arguments about how big the military should be.
Gates, in his speech in Kansas, asked whether the nation should "really be up in arms over a temporary projected shortfall of about 100 Navy and Marine strike fighters relative to the number of carrier wings, when America's military possesses more than 3,200 tactical combat aircraft of all kinds.
"Does the number of warships we have and are building really put America at risk when the U.S. battle fleet is larger than the next 13 navies combined, 11 of which belong to allies and partners? Is it a dire threat that by 2020 the United States will have only 20 times more advanced stealth fighters than China?”
Coburn, in his memo to the deficit commission, made a similar point, saying, "Compared to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba, we are spending more than three times what all those nations spend, combined. U.S. defense spending almost matches what the entire rest of the world spends.”
'Significant deficit'
Inhofe, however, believes that reductions in a new bomber, the nuclear arsenal and a ground combat vehicle "are creating a significant deficit in our ability to defeat America's enemies. The recent round of commentary coming from the Secretary of Defense questioning the need for aircraft carriers, bombers, submarines and nuclear weapons leaves me to believe that this administration continues to get it wrong.”
Cole said the U.S. has always had an approach to war of using overwhelming force.
In World War II, he said, Germany had superior tanks but the U.S. had far more tanks. Now, he said, the public expects the U.S. military to have the most and the best.
"American soldiers are expensive, but they are the very best,” he said.
Cole praised Coburn for his "thoughtful and insightful” memo on defense spending, and said Gates was right that the Defense Department must be a better steward of taxpayer dollars.
But, he said, "War and the military are not exercises in efficiency.”
http://newsok.com/tom-coburn-jim-inhofe-differ-on-defense-budget/article/3466769#ixzz0qJYg63wg
