House GOP divided over possible cuts to defense budget
Mike Brest
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Possible cuts to defense spending included in the House rules package that Republicans passed on Monday night have previewed fissures within the new majority.
The rules package that will govern the operations of the new Congress narrowly passed the House after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) used it to barter a deal with conservatives in exchange for the speaker’s gavel. Proposals included capping defense spending at the 2022 level for the next 10 years, which would amount to a roughly $75 billion, or 10%, cut to defense programs, though it’s still possible the cuts won’t affect the Pentagon.
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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a House Freedom Caucus leader, confirmed that defense spending is at risk of being cut days earlier, saying that “everything” is on the table due to the country’s debt.
“Maybe if we focused on that, helping the troops who do so much of the work out there for our great country, and maybe focus on getting rid of all the woke policies in our military, we’d have the weapons systems and the training that needs to be done so we’re ready to deal with our adversaries around the planet,” he stated.
Several House Republican defense spending hawks have already said they’re against any measures that would limit defense spending.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) voted against the rules package citing the possible cuts.
“This has a proposed billions of dollars cut to defense, which I think is a horrible idea,” Gonzales told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “When you have aggressive Russia and Ukraine, you’ve got a growing threat of China in the Pacific — you know, I’m going to visit Taiwan here in a couple of weeks — how am I going to look at our allies in the eye and say, I need you to increase your defense budget, but yet America is going to decrease ours?”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told reporters on Tuesday lawmakers hadn’t discussed cutting defense spending.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), previously an active-duty Marine Corps intelligence officer for seven years, celebrated the passing of the rules package and noted that there isn’t enough support on Capitol Hill to pass defense spending cuts.
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“Anyone suggesting this package cuts defense spending is ignoring the math: there are not 218 members that support defense cuts and any budget resolution that tries to do so will fail,” he said in a statement.
Defense spending has already become a top issue in the new GOP-led House as the previous Congress provided significant aid to Ukraine, while a small minority within the party had already expressed a desire to cut that assistance.