Barney Frank to Obama: Cut Military Spending

Advertisement

Advertisement

Frank says that's a mistake. "To accomplish his goals of expanding health care and other important quality of life services without ballooning the deficit," Frank noted, Obama has no choice but to decrease military spending. He said that spending excessive amounts of money on the defense budget "precludes" the Obama administration from addressing other priorities: "If we do not get military spending under control, we will not be able to respond to important domestic needs."

Acknowledging that Obama does plan to save hundreds of billions of dollars by withdrawing from Iraq, Frank said the President must go further and take big whacks at big-ticket military projects. He pointed to programs like the Air Force's F-22 fighter, the Osprey troop transport, and missile defense as expensive, unnecessary Cold War-era boondoggles. He singled out missile defense in Eastern Europe as a particularly wasteful use of American taxpayers' money. "I will confess that I am not a regular reader of Iranian-issued fatwahs," Frank quipped. "And probably one of the ones I missed was the one where they threatened devastation against Prague. We plan to spend several billion dollars to protect the Czech Republic against Iran. That's either a great waste of money or a very belated way to make up for Munich."

Other House liberals, including Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), joined Frank's call. They noted that having the influential and sharp-tongued Frank leading the effort would help them in the always-tough battle against Pentagon waste.

But don't look to Congress to reduce military spending on its own, Frank said: "Left entirely on our own, the Congress will not do the cuts in the military budget that ought to be there." Military spending cuts will only come, he said, if there's grassroots pressure for them.

Frank noted that in the Pentagon budget fight he's up against some heavy hitting Democrats—including Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who chair the House and Senate Armed Services committees, respectively, and who "are not where I am" on military spending. Asked whether he could win over the Blue Dog Democrats and other "fiscally conservative" legislators who often oppose domestic spending but rarely complain about military expenditures, Frank flipped open his suit jacket, and asked, "Do you see a magic wand here?" He insisted that voters who live in the congressional districts of the members should "help us."

Presumably, Frank would like to see grassroots pressure also applied to Obama. He spared the White House any tongue-lashing. And, no doubt, he realizes that it will be an uphill battle to downsize the Pentagon significantly. He's not new to this struggle. For years, Frank has railed against excessive military spending. This time around, he has more clout then ever. Will he use it?