Speaker blasts Dems for ‘shameful’ opposition to $612B defense bill

House Republican leaders are ripping Democrats for their opposition to the chamber’s $612 billion defense policy bill.

“This shouldn’t be a tough vote, but incredibly, after helping to pass this bill though committee by a vote of 60-2, Democrat leaders have pulled their support,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said during a press conference.

“Democrats are now saying they support our troops before they oppose them. You have to ask them, but I think it’s downright shameful that they’re even contemplating turning their backs on American troops,” he added.

{mosads}Boehner called out Democrats who serve on the House Armed Services Committee, saying they should “give our troops the support they deserve as they put their lives on the line to keep Americans safe.”

Earlier on Thursday, Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) expressed dismay that Democrats might oppose the bill when it comes to the floor.

“I’m concerned about these sorts of efforts that make it harder for us to build on the bipartisan tradition that has resulted in a Defense authorization act for the last 53 years,” he said during a Capitol Hill event.

The Republicans made the remarks hours before the full House is set to take up the annual policy road map.

Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (Wash.), have said they would vote against the bill because it funnels an additional $38 billion into the Defense Department’s war fund.

The budget maneuver is a way around spending caps set for the Pentagon in the 2011 Budget Control Act, but the bill leaves the caps in place for domestic spending, drawing criticism from Democrats.

Pelosi, who is whipping votes against the defense bill, doubled down on her opposition during a Thursday press conference, calling the measure “dangerous.”

“We support lifting the sequester and fully funding the president’s defense budget. The Republican bill that is coming to the floor … [is] both bad budgeting and harmful to military planning, perpetuating uncertainty and instability in the defense budget [and] damaging the military’s ability to plan and prepare for the future.” 

She said the GOP was using the war fund as “virtual slush fund for one part of the budget, while letting the ax fall on everything else” on the domestic side.

Smith, speaking at the same event as Thornberry, said that the budget caps are “way too severe” and should be lifted for all federal agencies, not just the Defense Department.

“‘We will not let defense out from under the budget caps and keep everything else under it,” he said.

Smith said the GOP’s overall budget plan retains the “draconian” spending limits in the hopes President Obama will trash them later this year.

“I can’t see that happening,” he said. 

Smith ripped the speaker for implying “otherwise in order to score cheap partisan points. Shame on him.”

Thornberry said none of the NDAA’s proposed changes to the military retirement program and defense acquisition will happen “if we don’t have a Defense authorization bill.”

“I’m not a big fan of the Budget Control Act; I do not like what it’s done to defense,” he said. “At the same time we can’t fix the Budget Control Act if we don’t do Defense authorization.”

“There’s a lot at stake,” Thornberry warned.

This story was updates at 2:24 p.m.