National Security -- Gates Reins In Bloated Defense Budget

April 7, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

NATIONAL SECURITY

Gates Reins In Bloated Defense Budget

Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced his recommendations for the department's 2010 budget, offering "deep cuts in many traditional weapons systems but new billions of dollars for others, along with more troops and new technology to fight the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan." The Los Angeles Times described his proposal offering "the most sweeping changes in military spending priorities in decades." The Wonk Room's Matt Duss wrote yesterday that Gates's recommendations represent "an appreciable shift in the way that the United States approaches the issue of military acquisitions." By proposing major cuts in big-ticket items like the Army's Future Combat Systems and the Air Force's F-22, Gates is attempting to "swing the Pentagon's emphasis from conventional conflicts to irregular warfare." "This is a reform budget, reflecting lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan yet also addressing the range of other potential threats around the world, now and in the future," said Gates in the press conference announcing his plans. In an unusual move, Gates withheld his decisions from the White House until he made his formal announcement. But the White House appears to be supportive of his efforts. Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, told the Washington Independent that Gates's proposal was a "very important step" to "stop the era of irresponsibility, and no longer kick down the road tough decisions we need to make."

REAL CUTS: Perhaps the most notable decision in Gates's budget recommendations is his plan to end production of the F-22. Though the aircraft has been the subject of fierce lobbying in recent weeks, and members of Congress have suggested that they would resist efforts to downsize the program, Gates is capping production of the F-22 at 187 planes, down from the 381 the government was expected to order. In order to do this, Gates "promised to speed the testing of another fighter, the F-35, and maintain plans to eventually buy 2,443 of the planes," which could potentially maintain jobs for people currently working on the F-22. Gates' decision on the F-22 is welcome on two fronts. Not only does the plane contribute little to U.S. national security -- it has not flown a single mission in the Iraq or Afghanistan campaigns -- but the F-22 has also become increasingly costly to operate, even as the number of planes on order has decreased. Gates's budget recommendations also take an axe to programs like the Army's Future Combat System (FCS), which saw deeper cuts "than most analysts had expected."As Wired's Noah Shachtman noted, "Gates said he wanted to scrap all eight of the vehicles at the heart of FCS," though other aspects of the program will continue. Gates also announced an end to the production of the VH-71 presidential helicopter program. He pointed out in his announcement that the helicopter program was originally slated to cost $6.5 billion. However, now it "is estimated to cost over $13 billion, has fallen six years behind schedule, and runs the risk of not delivering the requested capability" -- all reasons why he wants to "terminate" it. The defense secretary also said he planned to scale back missile defense by $1.4 billion, halting the increase in the number of ground-based interceptors in Alaska.

THE INEVITABLE PUSHBACK: In his announcement, Gates anticipated that his recommendations would not be warmly received by some members of Congress and the defense industry. " I know that in the coming weeks we will hear a great deal about threats, and risk and danger -- to our country and to our men and women in uniform -- associated with different budget choices," he said. Indeed, "[j]ust 24 minutes after Gates finished his announcement," a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to President Obama attacking the proposed cuts to missile defense. "We fear that cuts to the budget for missile defense could inadvertently... foster the impression that the United States is an unreliable ally," wrote the senators, led by Joe Lieberman (I-CT). Gates also noted that many in Congress had "parochial interests" in protecting programs that provided jobs in their districts. A perfect example of the conflict between Gates' recommendations and the vested interests of members of Congress is in Georgia, where F-22 production employs 2,000 workers. The Georgia congressional delegation responded to Gates with a generally harsh tone. "This decision will not only cost thousands of jobs at a critical time, it is detrimental to the country's national defense capabilities," said Rep. Tom Price (R-GA). Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) claimed that the Obama administration "is willing to sacrifice the lives of American military men and women for the sake of domestic programs favored by President Obama." Rep. Ike Skelton (D-GA), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, praised Gates's "good-faith effort" but also warned that "the buck stops with Congress."

COULD HAVE GONE FURTHER: In December 2008, the Center for American Progress released a report, "Building a Military for the 21st Century," that recommended specific defense cuts. In a comparative analysis, Duss noted that while Gates makes many of the same recommendations, he differs from CAP in a some key areas. For instance, while Gates curtailed and canceled some missile defense programs, he also added funding for others. In 2008, CAP recommended that the Pentagon "cancel unproven missile defense programs." The CAP report recommended that the military build more C-17 cargo aircraft, but Gates wants to complete production of the C-17 this year. Regarding the F-35, CAP recommended that production continue, but that full-scale production should not start until flight tests have been completed. Gates, on the other hand, is increasing purchases of F-35s, with a "plan to buy 513 F-35s over the five-year defense plan, and, ultimately, plan to buy 2,443" of the aircraft. Overall, however, many of the cuts that Gates is embracing were originally proposed in CAP's Progressive Quadrennial Review report, which was written by Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb and Senior Policy Analysts Caroline Wadhams and Andrew Grotto in January 2006.

CIVIL LIBERTIES -- OBAMA ADMINISTRATION INVOKES 'STATE SECRETS' CLAIM TO DEFEND BUSH'S WIRETAPPING PROGRAM: The Obama administration is "invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration's wiretapping program" against a lawsuit brought by AT&T customers who claim "federal agents illegally intercepted their phone calls and gained access to their records." Justice Department lawyers yesterday demanded a dismissal of the Electronic Frontier Foundation lawsuit against former Bush officials, arguing that the information constitutes privileged "state secrets." Moreover, the DOJ claims the Patriot Act bars lawsuits against "illegal government surveillance unless there is 'willful disclosure' of the illegally intercepted communications." The San Francisco Chronicle reports that disclosure of the information sought by the customers "would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security," according to Justice Department lawyers. Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lawyer for the customers, said the filing was disappointing, particularly after the Obama presidential campaign's "unceasing criticism of Bush-era secrecy and promise for more transparency."

HEALTH CARE -- STUDY: MILLIONS WOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH CARE PLAN: A key component of President Obama's health care plan is a "public" health insurance option. A new study released yesterday from The Lewin Group, aimed at discerning the impact a public health plan might have in competing with private insurers, concludes that millions of Americans would take advantage of a public health insurance option. The Lewin Group found that having a public option could lower health care premiums by 30 percent if the public program used Medicare rates of reimbursement. "The keys here are competition and choice," The Wonk Room's Igor Volsky wrote. "[I]f millions of Americans are not satisfied with private insurance and believe that a public option would offer better quality at lower costs, then they will stop rewarding private insurers for providing expensive inferior coverage." Today, the New York Times editorial board endorsed the public option. "A new public plan -- to offer consumers greater choice, keep the private plans honest, and one can hope, restrain the relentless growth in health care premiums underlying medical costs -- seems worth trying," the editorial said. Recently, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) indicated he would push health reform without including a public plan, saying that discussing a public option is merely a bargaining chip to "encourage the private health insurance industry to move in the direction it knows it should move toward."

ENVIRONMENT -- IN ARTICLE ON NEW CLIMATE CHANGE DATA, WASHINGTON POST TAKES A SHOT AT ITS OWN COLUMNIST: In February, Washington Post columnist George Will wrote a column calling global warming a "hypothetical" calamity. Among the various specious claims he made in his column, Will argued that because global sea ice remained near its 1979 levels, global warming was not occurring. Despite Will's widely documented errors, Washington Post's editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, did not believe Will's column merited any corrections. Today, however, in an article regarding new Arctic sea ice data released yesterday by NASA, Post reporters Juliet Eilperin and Mary Beth Sheridan attempted to correct the record. "The Arctic sea ice cover continues to shrink and become thinner, according to satellite measurements and other data released yesterday, providing further evidence that the region is warming more rapidly than scientists had expected. ... The new evidence -- including satellite data showing that the average multiyear wintertime sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2005 and 2006 was nine feet thick, a significant decline from the 1980s -- contradicts data cited in widely circulated reports by Washington Post columnist George F. Will that sea ice in the Arctic has not significantly declined since 1979," they wrote. While Will's specious claims were specifically about "global sea ice," not Arctic sea ice, the overarching point is still true: Will is woefully uninformed about the science of climate change.

Two-thirds of Americans approve of President Obama's job performance, a New York Times/CBS News poll finds. "By contrast, just 31 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest in the 25 years" of the poll. Sixty-three percent thought Obama was most likely to make the right decisions for the economy, versus 20 percent who said Congressional Republicans were more likely.

The poll also indicates that "almost three-quarters of Americans think it is a good idea to raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 per year."

Today, the D.C. Council will consider "whether to recognize domestic partnerships granted in other states and countries -- a decision that could serve as a prelude to the city’s own attempt to legalize same-sex marriage."

The U.S plans to "step up its use of drones to strike militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas and might extend them to a different sanctuary deeper inside the country." The Pakistani government has “expressed concerns that the missile strikes from remotely piloted aircraft fuel more violence in the country."

A long-secret International Committee of the Red Cross report found that medical officials were deeply involved in the torture of terrorist suspects held overseas, constituting a "gross breach of medical ethics." The report found that the "medical professionals' role was primarily to support the interrogators, not to protect the prisoners, and that the professionals had 'condoned and participated in ill treatment.'"

"The traditional teaching career is collapsing at both ends," a National Commission on Teaching and America's Future report says. One in three new teachers is leaving the profession within five years and "over the next four years, more than a third of the nation's 3.2 million teachers could retire."

And finally: Shortly after throwing out the first pitch at the Yankees-Orioles Opening Day game yesterday, Vice President Biden "went up to the announcers booth and brought the house down, poking fun at the anonymity of his office, mocking his own baldness, and making a well-timed joke about former V.P. Dan Quayle’s failures as a speller." When the announcers told the Vice President that he was handling his job well, Biden jokingly replied, "No one ever remembers your name. It's okay." Watch it here.

An Afghanistan law that effectively legalizes marital rape "is on hold" after “provoking an outcry in the West over concerns about women's rights."

THINK PROGRESS: The Senate should ignore nutty Glenn-Beck conspiracy theories and appoint Yale Law School's Harold Koh to the State Department.

WONK ROOM: Study finds toxic assets truly worthless; Geithner's plan "will simply transfer wealth" to banks.

YGLESIAS: Transportation jobs are good jobs.

MINNESOTA INDEPENDENT: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) claims that the Serve America Act will lead to "re-education camps for young people."

CALIFORNIA: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) makes a new push for universal health care coverage.

MASSACHUSETTS: Undocumented immigrants would be issued driver's licenses under new legislation.

VERMONT: State House and Senate override Gov. Jim Douglas's (R) veto of a bill legalizing marriage equality.

"Dick Cheney is clearly right in saying that between the Court decisions about terrorists and the administration actions the United States is running greater risks of getting attacked than we were under President Bush."
-- Former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich, 4/6/09

VERSUS

"Well, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. ... We think for the military, in particular that camp, that's a line [torture] that can't be crossed."
-- Gen. David Petraeus, 3/29/09, on Cheney's claim

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Gates Reins In Bloated Defense Budget

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