Liberals want more defense spending left behind

President Obama is facing mounting pressure from his party’s left flank to cut defense spending so more money can be spent on social programs.

A letter obtained by The Hill shows that liberal advocacy groups and lawmakers want Obama to seize a moment when Democrats control both Congress and the White House and scrap costly weapons programs they say have drained domestic coffers.

Hard economic times are intensifying pressure to choose guns or butter, particularly as the Bush administration is criticized for sharply raising spending on both.

The left’s demands pose a looming problem for the president, who traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to build support for his budget, which has already drawn criticism from centrist Democrats for a 12 percent increase in domestic discretionary spending. This further fractures the party, with liberals focused on Obama’s call to hike defense spending by 4 percent.

The push from liberals comes at a time when Obama has pledged to increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, and China and India have begun to emerge as major military and economic powers.

{mosads}Embracing the idea while the country is still engaged in conflicts overseas would reaffirm the notion to those on the right and in the center that Obama is a classic liberal. But turning away the request risks alienating key members of his base.

The groups sent the letter to congressional Democratic leaders late Wednesday calling for steep cuts to the Joint Strike Fighter Program and other futuristic weapons plagued by production delays and cost overruns, with the money saved going to schools, healthcare and other social services.

At the same time, a leading Senate liberal has questioned Obama’s proposed spending on defense while House Democrats tussle over how to publicly oppose the president’s budget plan.

“The Department of Defense has laid the welcome mat for rampant waste and excess,” wrote Brent Wilkes, of the

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and Gary Flowers, of the Black Leadership Forum, in a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) late Wednesday.

“Billions of dollars are being squandered on costly, faulty defense aircraft that may be outdated before they are ever flown, money that would be better spent in classrooms, emergency rooms and veterans hospitals.”

Other national liberal groups including the Hispanic Federation, the League of Rural Voters, the National Congress of Black Women and the National Council of Negro Women also signed the letter.

The letter follows criticism lobbed by Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), a leading Senate liberal who gave the first hint of frustration over defense spending levels after emerging from a Tuesday briefing with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).

{mospagebreak}{mosads}“I have a question as to whether we need defense spending to go up by as much as it is,” Harkin told reporters after lamenting that he would not have enough money to fulfill his funding goals for health and education.
Harkin chairs the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee.

In past years, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CBC) and the Congressional Black Caucus, two groups dominated by liberal House Democrats, have put forth their own budget proposals to strike a sharp policy contrast with President George W. Bush.

But now that Obama occupies the White House, some lawmakers in these groups have argued that they should not clash publicly  with the president in politically sensitive areas such as defense spending.

This is the first year since 1994 that there has been a Democratic president and Democratic-controlled Congress.

Some liberal lawmakers believe they should work behind the scenes to influence the budget resolution crafted by Democratic leaders.

Publicly calling on Obama to cut defense spending at a time of war could unravel into a political mess.

One Democratic lawmaker familiar with the internal debate said that members of the Progressive andBlack caucuses are wrangling over the conundrum. (The House Progressive Caucus meets Thursday to discuss healthcare reform and budget priorities.)

Liberal groups argue that eliminating the Joint Strike Fighter program could make up the difference between their health and education spending goals and Obama’s budget.

Niel Ritchie, executive director of the League of Rural Voters, said “a few hundred billion dollars is a lot of schools and a lot of healthcare.”

“There can’t be business as usual on appropriations, and the defense budget is one thing that has gone up and up, and that can’t happen anymore,” he said.

A report published last year by the Government Accountability Office found that 95 major weapons programs exceeded their original budgets by $295 billion.

The Joint Strike Fighter program could cost as much as $1 trillion over its lifetime.

The argument by groups such as LULAC, the Black Leadership Forum and the League of Rural Voters is gaining traction among liberal and black lawmakers.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said defense spending is “an area where we can make cuts and reinvest in important programs such as healthcare and education.”

Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), a member of the CBC, said: “I agree 100 percent.

“Rather than planning for war, we ought to take a timeout and invest in peace,” said Watson.

Watson said that the CBC would unveil a budget “to ask that we decrease amounts of money going to the Pentagon and increase amounts for education and health.”

Watson said that Black Caucus members received a warm reception when they presented their proposal to Obama during a meeting at the White House late last month.

“When we finished he said, ‘Why are you preaching to the choir?’”

 Two other members of the black caucus interviewed by The Hill said they did not remember those exact words but did not dispute Watson’s account. They characterized the meeting with Obama as very positive.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Black Caucus, declined to discuss the details of the budget proposal it plans to unveil soon.

During recent testimony before the House Budget Committee, Lee called for cuts to the Ballistic Missile Defense Program. She told The Hill the savings should be spent on mental healthcare and cancer research for troops.

She described Obama as sympathetic to the group’s foreign policy and domestic priorities.
“We have been the conscience of the Congress and we will fight for funding priorities to be reprioritized,” said Lee at the hearing. “The president was very responsive.”