U.S. Republicans Are Divided On Defense Cuts

The US Capitol building is pictured on Capitol Hill in Washington, last week. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)

Defense Cuts Divide The GOP -- Wall Street Journal

Some Lawmakers Push for More Efforts to Avoid Toll on Military-Heavy Districts

WASHINGTON—Republicans head into the next budget battle with President Barack Obama torn between two long-standing goals: Strengthening the military and cutting federal spending.

The prospect of deep cuts in defense is troubling to many in the party, which has traditionally supported robust defense spending. But increasingly, that impulse is giving way to arguments from GOP lawmakers, many of them new to Congress, who say the most important goal is to rein in federal deficits. They believe that steep, across-the-board spending cuts due to hit on March 1, while an imperfect tool, are the only way to accomplish their goal.

Even some Republicans in defense-heavy districts are calling for the budget cuts to take effect—a development that helps explain why the $85 billion in defense and nondefense cuts, known as sequestration, are now likely to go through. Part of the 2011 deal between the White House and Congress to raise the debt ceiling, the cuts were seen as a threat so dire that they would be replaced with a more nuanced spending-reduction plan. But that threat hasn't produced the expected effect.

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My Comment: It is easy to kick the can down the road .... again. Raise taxes .... and make a promise that everyone will revisit the issue of program cuts at some future date. But running a budget deficit of over $1 trillion each year is not sustainable .... promising to do the necessary cuts and then not cutting has only ruined everyone`s credibility .... and as a result we now have a growing segment of the American electorate and some Republicans starting to voice their opposition.

Is the Republican Party divided .... from my vantage point in Canada I have to say yes. Is this a good thing .... I do not know .... but I do know that the status quo of increasing taxes and government is not working .... cuts and living within one`s means must be done .... and the Defense Department is one of those many government institutions that will have to make the necessary adjustments and sacrifices.