Defense hawks will back budget with higher war spending

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who spearheaded a letter from 70 House Republicans refusing to back a budget proposal without more robust defense spending, says his group would support the GOP fiscal framework being considered that includes around $20 billion more for the Pentagon.

“We’re voting the budget that fully funds defense, which is where we should have been to begin with,” he told The Hill on Tuesday.

{mosads}Last week, Turner and other defense hawks were told they could expect to add an amendment to the House’s $3.8 trillion budget blueprint that would boost Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), sometimes known as the war fund, to $96 billion and require no offsets.

But fiscal conservatives on the Budget Committee balked at the proposal, and the budget passed out of the panel without the change.

GOP leaders are now moving forward with a strategy that will put two plans on the floor: the original budget, and the amended plan with more defense spending.

Under the maneuver, the budget that gets the most votes on the floor will become the House budget, even if both pass.

Republican leaders and vote-counters are increasingly confident the plan with higher spending will pass. 

“The message is: vote ‘no’ on one, vote ‘yes’ on two,” Turner said.

Asked whether he was frustrated with the process, Turner replied: “This is no way to run a railroad. It’s certainly no way to run Congress.”