McKeon backs tax hikes over deeper defense cuts - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

McKeon backs tax hikes over deeper defense cuts

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday that if forced to choose, he would protect defense spending over taxes, marking a departure from many of his Republican colleagues who say under no circumstances would they support any tax increases.

Speaking before the American Enterprise Institute, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said, “This is just me — and this is probably a good way to lose an election, but that’s not the reason why I’m here — but if it came that I had only two choices, one was a tax increase and one was to cut defense over and above where we already are, I would vote to strengthen defense.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other senior defense officials have urged the congressional super committee, tasked with identifying $1.2 trillion in savings, to consider raising taxes to help pay down the country’s debt.

“You cannot deal with the size deficits that this country is confronting by simply cutting the discretionary side of the budget,” Panetta said during an Aug. 4 news briefing.

While defense makes up 20 percent of the overall federal budget, it comprises more than half of the government’s discretionary spending, which accounts for roughly a third of the overall budget.

“As the president’s made clear, if you’re going to deal with those size deficits, you’ve got to look at the mandatory side of the budget, which is two-thirds of the federal budget, and you also have to look at revenues as part of that answer,” Panetta said.

However, many Republicans refuse to consider tax increases.

In an Aug. 11 presidential debate in Iowa, all eight Republican candidates rejected tax hikes as a way to deal with the country’s debt.

Meanwhile, McKeon said that over the last 10 years Americans have not been forced to pay for the wars the same way they did during World War II.

“For a decade, Americans have quietly gone about their lives in relative peace, immune to the sacrifices common of a wartime society,” McKeon said during his speech. “There has been no rationing, no war bonds and no evening blackouts.”

McKeon said the debt ceiling and deficit reduction law enacted in early August contains bad choices for Republicans who are worried about defense spending. Across-the-board cuts that would occur automatically if lawmakers cannot agree on how to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years will fall heavily on defense, he said, and he fears big defense cuts may happen anyway.

McKeon said it was his “suspicion” that the White House and congressional Democrats made certain that 50 percent of any across-the-board cuts fell on the Defense Department “to force Republicans to choose between raising taxes or gutting defense.”

“That political gamesmanship is simply unacceptable,” McKeon said.

The House passed the Budget Control Act by a 269-161 vote, with 174 Republicans voting in favor of the measure that raised the debt ceiling and set deficit reduction targets.

McKeon himself voted for the plan, although he said at the time that he was concerned about its impact on future defense spending.

Even if across-the-board cuts don’t happen, McKeon said he believes the Obama administration is planning big cuts in the defense budget.

“I am concerned that guidance from the White House would direct cuts beyond what the Defense Department is prepared to absorb,” he said.

The White House could unveil a deficit reduction plan as early as next week that is expected to include spending cuts supported by President Obama, with an expectation that some cuts in defense spending will be included.

McKeon is leading a group of Republicans opposed to any major defense cuts, saying in his speech that reducing military spending “would open the door to aggression, as our ability to deter and respond to an attack would be severely crippled.”