A group of more than 50 senators and representatives, led by Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas), are calling on the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to endorse major cuts to the defense budget.
Joined by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, they say the commission should look at what a press release calls "excessive defense spending" when they want to find ways to reduce the federal deficit and national debt. They plan to send the commission a letter about this on Wednesday. The Pentagon's spending should, they argue, "be subjected to the same rigorous scrutiny that non-military spending will receive." These cuts can be made in ways that "will not endanger national security," according to the release.
This is the same group that said in June that $1 trillion could be cut from the defense budget in a report called "Debt, Deficits and Defense: A Way Forward.”
The presidential commission is expected to make its recommendations public in December. That should be a in interesting Christmas present for outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
