Neil,
Press release on Clinton's budget plane shows more money for military aircraft.
Clinton To Seek $270.6B for Defense
February 2, 1998
WASHINGTON - The Associated Press via Individual Inc. : With a sharp
increase for new weapons, the Clinton administration plans to seek $270.6
billion in defense spending for next year, according to documents obtained
Friday.
- The administration's defense spending blueprint seeks $48.7 billion for
weapons purchases, including the first two Air Force F-22 fighters, 30 Navy
FA-18 E and F fighters, a new attack submarine, an amphibious assault ship
and three destroyers. That's up nearly $4 billion from this year's weapons
spending level. By comparison, the total proposed defense budget itself for
next year is $3 billion above this year.
- In addition, the spending blueprint pledges to reach a level of $61 billion for
weapons spending by 2001. The administration plan reflects the prevailing
philosophy in U.S. military circles that long-term military modernization
represents a higher priority than current force size. No major weapons
systems are canceled in the budget plan, and some, such as a new aircraft
carrier, a fully ''digitalized'' Army division, and unmanned surveillance planes,
are accelerated.
- Defense Secretary William Cohen is to announce the spending package on
Capitol Hill next week. A copy of the defense budget plan was obtained
Friday by The Associated Press from a government official briefed in advance
on its contents.
- In a speech Thursday at the National Defense University, an elite officer
school in Washington, Clinton said the budget maintains a cutting-edge force
ready for battle.
- ''Readiness remains our No. 1 priority, and my budget provides for the
readiness we need in a hopeful but still hazardous time,'' Clinton said.
Suggesting administration thinking toward a smaller but still effective force,
Clinton said, ''Our military leaders understand that tomorrow's force must be
agile, effective and lean.''
- Part of that leanness, Clinton says, must come in the form of additional
military base closures, and his budget seeks authority for two more base
closure rounds. Congress roundly rejected that idea last year.
- Cohen described the budget plan as seeking ''the proper balance between
current operations, modernization and real-world operational challenges.''
- The $270.6 billion figure includes $13.3 billion for nuclear weapons
programs administered by the Energy Department and represents total
Pentagon budget authority, a figure that includes some money that will be
spent in future years. Defense budget outlays, the actual amount the Pentagon
will spend in fiscal 1999, which begins next Oct. 1, is set at $265.5 billion,
including $12.9 billion for nuclear weapons programs.
- Because so much of what the Pentagon does involves long-term spending,
the budget authority figure _ $270.6 billion _ is the one defense officials will
most frequently use in their discussions on Capitol Hill. It represents a $3
billion increase over this year's defense budget. But both Pentagon and
congressional budget experts agree that in actual buying power, the plan
represents a slight decrease due to the effects of inflation.
- In addition to the weapons spending increase, the other driving forces in the
defense budget are service member pay, housing improvements and current
readiness. The plan calls for a 3.1 percent military pay raise next year and 3
percent per year in the following four years. Thus, while the size of the
active-duty force will decline by 23,000 next year to 1.396 million, the
Pentagon's military personnel budget will increase by nearly $1 billion to $70.8
billion.
- The budget hews closely to last year's balanced budget agreement and to the
defense spending plan that came out of the military's Quadrennial Defense
Review of spending and strategy. Despite talk of budget surpluses, the
defense budget proposal contains few dramatic changes over what was
discussed last year.
- One exception is the administration plan to seek money for troop
deployments to Bosnia and the Persian Gulf region as ''emergency'' spending.
Because NATO has not yet set the details of the extended troop deployment
to Bosnia, the administration is not yet certain how much it will seek.
- In recent years, the Pentagon has been asked to fund these contingency
operations by finding offsetting money to cut from its own budget. Steve
Kosiak, a defense budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Priorities, said he expects the Pentagon to seek $400 million to $600 million
for Bosnia operations through the end of this fiscal year, and about $2 billion
for next year.
- ''That is a change, and it's not an insignificant change,'' Kosiak said.
Harry
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