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For Immediate Release
February 6, 2002
Contact: William D. Hartung,
Hartung@newschool.edu
Frida Berrigan,
Berrigaf@newschool.edu
New York, February 6th, 2002 -- The centerpiece of the Bush administration's
Fiscal Year 2003 budget is a proposed $48 billion increase in Pentagon
spending. If the President has his way, total budget authority for military
spending for 2003 - including military functions of the Coast Guard and
the Department of Energy -- will reach $396 billion, an $87 billion increase
from the level that prevailed when he took office in January 2001.
Clad in a leather bomber jacket, President George W. Bush addressed Air
Force personnel at Elgin Air Force base in Florida to present his case
for the huge increase, the largest since the Reagan administration.
"Our men and women in deserve the best weapons, the best equipment and the
best training," he said to resounding applause.
The proposed increase in military spending for 2003 alone is larger than
the entire military budget of every other country in the world except
Russia, which spent roughly $56 billion for military purposes in calendar
year 2000, the most recent year for which statistics are
available.
With the ink barely dry on the White House's hefty budget proposal, the
Pentagon is already preparing to make its case that $48 billion is not
enough money. General Richard Myers, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff,
addressed Congress on Tuesday to call for spending of more than $100
billion a year "for several years," in order to replace aging
fighter planes and other big ticket items.
Bush made the argument that we need new military
spending for new threats and a new security
environment, saying, "it is very clear
that the defense budget is cheap when one compares
it to putting our security
at risk, our lives at risk, our country at risk, our freedoms at risk."
"The President's rhetoric ignores the fact that this new military spending
spree has little to do with fighting the war on terrorism," asserts William
D. Hartung, a Senior Research Fellow at the World Policy Institute. "More
than one-third of the $68 billion in weapons procurement funding in the Pentagon's
latest budget proposal is set aside to pay for big ticket Cold War systems ranging
from three new fighter plane programs, to costly destroyers and attack submarines,
to the 70-ton Crusader artillery system. None of these systems are necessary
to carry out the President's war on terrorism. The Pentagon budget proposal is
great news for Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and United Defense, but it's a colossal
waste of taxpayer money at a time when our national leadership should be setting
clear priorities."
The combination of large tax cuts, the largest
military spending increase in twenty years,
and a doubling of the budget for homeland defense
will
force major cutbacks in environmental protection, job training, energy
conservation programs, and other government initiatives designed to promote
sustainable economic growth. "A strong economy is the foundation
of our strength as a nation," says Hartung. "Throwing money
at the Pentagon while slashing funds for economic development and international
diplomacy will undermine our security, not enhance it."
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