Clinton wants biggest boost in defense spending since Reagan
January 24, 2000
Web posted at: 10:18 p.m. EST (0318 GMT)
From Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A proposed hike in defense spending by
President Bill Clinton is not presidential politics but
rather the first step in fulfilling last year's pledge to add
$112 billion to the defense budget over six years, Pentagon
officials tell CNN.
When Clinton unveils the federal budget next month, Pentagon
sources tell CNN, he will propose spending $291 billion on
defense, a hike of more than $18 billion and nearly double
last year's increase.
The nearly 7 percent increase in defense spending next year
that the Clinton administration will propose is the biggest
increase in the Pentagon's budget since the Reagan-era
military buildup of the 1980s.
In this election year, the proposal could draw charges of
playing politics. Republican presidential candidates have
criticized the Clinton administration for underfunding the
military and causing what they called a resulting decline in
readiness.
One of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's campaign
themes is restoring military spending. And George W. Bush,
who advocates "clear-eyed realism" in foreign policy, says
he will set national defense as the "first focus" of a Bush
administration should he be elected.
Both hopefuls have come down hard on Clinton's dealings with
the military budgets during his administration.
"There is almost no relationship between our budget
priorities and a strategic vision," Bush says. "The last
seven years have been wasted in inertia and idle talk."
McCain backs increased defense spending, claiming that "not
since Pearl Harbor has our investment in national defense
been so low as a percentage of our gross national product."
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The Pentagon's spending authority for the last five years,
and the proposed hike for fiscal year 2001 (according to
Pentagon sources):
| YEAR |
DoD SPENDING AUTHORITY |
$ INCREASE |
% INCREASE |
| FY1996 |
$254,417,000 |
|
|
| FY1997 |
$257,974,000 |
$3,557,000 |
1.4% |
| FY1998 |
$258,527,000 |
$563,000 |
0.22% |
| FY1999 |
$262,564,000 |
$4,027,000 |
1.56% |
| FY2000 |
$272,400,000 |
$9,836,000 |
3.75% |
| FY2001 |
$291,000,000 |
$18,600,000 |
6.83% |
|
| | |
"Since 1992, when President Clinton took office, our armed
forces have deployed an average of one deployment every nine
weeks, yet defense budgets have declined by nearly 40 percent
during that same time, and procurement of modern weapons
systems has declined by 70 percent," McCain says.
Sources say that for the first time since Clinton took
office, the Pentagon will meet its stated goal of including
$60 billion for modernization and procurement of new weapons.
The conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation criticized both
Congress and the White House at budget time last year, saying
neither had developed a credible plan to meet the Pentagon's
long-standing procurement goal of $60 billion annually.
"The declining readiness of U.S. military forces has become
so acute that even President Clinton has been forced to
acknowledge it," a Heritage Foundation background paper
stated.
Last year, the administration proposal was $267 billion.
Congress added almost $5 billion to that to bring the total
to $272.4 billion for fiscal year 2000, for a total increase
of $9.8 billion, or 3.75 percent. This did not include
supplemental appropriations to cover the cost of operations
in Bosnia and Kosovo.
This year's proposed $291 billion is an increase of 6.83
percent.
The last time the Pentagon received so large an increase in
its budget was in 1983, when the defense budget went up 7.4
percent to $239 billion. In 1999 inflation-adjusted dollars
that would be equal to $383 billion.
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