Department of Defense and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

SPEECH OF
HON. JARED POLIS
OF COLORADO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2011

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill. This is not a good-faith effort to keeping the government running. Last night in the Rules Committee, Democrats offered an amendment that would have kept the government open for one week at current levels. Instead of allowing for an up-or-down vote on that measure, Republicans are attempting to force through another bloated spending bill.

Under this continuing resolution, critical government services would face draconian cuts--hundreds of millions of dollars--while defense spending would jump 1.5 percent over last year's level. This means drastic cuts to education, law enforcement, and health care. Meanwhile, the greatest source of waste and overspending in the federal government--the Pentagon--gets even more money.

Cuts to discretionary spending alone will never close our budget gap. But leaving defense spending off the table, which comprises roughly half of all discretionary spending, is counterproductive. Those domestic cuts won't balance the budget but they could stymie economic recovery now and harm our ability to compete globally in the years to come.

Even our Defense leaders recognize that Pentagon spending restraint must be part of debt reduction efforts. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mullen stated that "our national debt is our biggest national security threat." He also noted that the past decade's doubling of the Department of Defense budget has led to undisciplined spending. Secretary Gates concurs, stating, "We can't hold ourselves exempt from the belt-tightening. Neither can we allow ourselves to contribute to the very debt that puts our long-term security at risk."

An array of bi-partisan non-governmental groups analyzing our debt crisis have studied our defense budget and identified reductions in annual defense spending in the $70-100 billion range. The recent bi-partisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, often called the Simpson-Bowles Commission, called for "substantial defense reductions over the next 10 years." They have recommended various cuts that would lead to $60 billion in savings from security spending in the first year. In fact, if we implemented the Commission's recommendations, we would save $100 billion dollars from defense spending in 2015 alone.

Instead of following the lead of fiscally responsible efforts such as the Commission, Republicans have decided to increase defense spending and slash only domestic discretionary spending. To get a sense of how unbalanced this is, we would have to cut $14.5 billion from defense spending, in order to equal the cuts to domestic spending.

Reasonable military spending reductions can be made without sacrificing national security or undermining our troops. The Department of Defense must be held accountable for ensuring that tax dollars are not wasted and military spending should be scrutinized to find meaningful reductions in outdated or unworkable programs. Anyone who denies the Defense Department is one of the largest sources of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government probably thinks the Pentagon has four sides.

It's clear that Republicans are not serious about the deficit. If they were, waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon would be as much of a focus as anywhere else in the budget. But rather than holding the line on spending, the Majority is actually feeding the beast. And they're playing political games with this continuing resolution rather working with the president to avert a government shutdown. It's not fiscally responsible or morally responsible, so I will vote no on the bill.

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