Federal deficit reduction a national security imperative

Source: Nashua Telegraph

By Senator Jeanne Shaheen

August 5, 2012

The current threats to American security are real and complex. Nuclear proliferation, global terrorism, cyberattacks, Iran and ongoing unrest in the Middle East are just a few of the challenges we face.

Given the depth and breadth of these threats, it is striking that the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, testified last year that, in his military judgment, "the most significant threat to our national security is our national debt."    

Without a sustainable fiscal path for our government and necessary investments in our infrastructure, our economy will falter. Without a strong economy behind it, no military – no nation – can remain pre-eminent in the world.

The Budget Control Act, as the debt deal struck last year is officially named, requires Congress to find more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction. We have already approved nearly $1 trillion in cuts, but if Congress cannot reach an agreement on how to achieve the rest by the end of the year, the legislation will automatically trigger across-the-board cuts to most federal programs.

Those cuts will be split evenly between domestic programs and the Department of Defense in a process known as sequestration.

Sequestration would have a significant effect on our military and on the defense industry, which includes more than 500 New Hampshire companies employing thousands of workers. Sequestration would not discriminate between those programs vital to our security and those that need reform.

It would mean reduced support for critical programs and installations needed to meet the threats of today and delayed investment in the next-generation technologies and platforms that will ensure our future security.

The potential impact to our economy from the cuts on the domestic side would be equally dire. Under sequestration, 100,000 children would lose places in Head Start and 25,000 teachers would lose their jobs. Critical technology and medical research would be dramatically cut back.

The Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for air travel safety, would pare down its operations. Food safety inspections would be curtailed. Border security agents would face layoffs.

These across-the-board cuts to reduce the deficit are clearly the wrong approach, one that is potentially damaging to our economy and security.

But backing away from our commitment to deal with our long-term debt and deficits is not the right choice, either.

We should pass a long-term deficit solution that includes reforms to all areas of spending – domestic, mandatory and defense – as well as greater revenues.

The president's Simpson-Bowles Commission, the Domenici-Rivlin Task Force and other bipartisan groups have all concluded that meaningful deficit reform is not possible without addressing revenues.

We now spend more than $1.1 trillion a year on tax breaks and other tax expenditures, more than we spend on national defense, Medicare or Medicaid. We need comprehensive tax reform.

Unfortunately, many of the plans under debate now are taking a shortsighted and unbalanced approach.

Legislation passed in the House of Representatives would avoid making hard decisions at the Pentagon by shielding all military spending from the effects of the sequester, at the expense of even deeper across-the-board cuts to important domestic programs.

Defense spending represents more than half of all discretionary spending, and it makes no sense to allow the Pentagon's budget to escape all scrutiny.

On the domestic side, we can do more to cut obsolete or duplicated programs. I have proposed several reforms, such as cuts to the farmers' crop insurance program so we're not giving unlimited help to large farms that don't need it.

The lack of a long-term solution is leading the consumers who drive our economy to leave their money in the bank. Leading businesses are holding back the investments needed to grow. The deadline is fast approaching when Congress will have to make tough decisions about what path to take.

We should continue to work on a comprehensive solution that puts everything on the table. It's the right thing to do for our national security, for our economy and for our people.

Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, represents New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate.

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