Senate Armed Services ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., on Wednesday sharply criticized appropriators for shifting roughly $10 billion from the Pentagon’s base budget to its war-spending accounts.
McCain, who has long battled appropriators over what he considers wasteful spending, called the maneuver a “budget gimmick” that misleads taxpayers into believing the bill makes sharp reductions in Pentagon spending to help reduce the country’s deficit.
Senate appropriators shifted the funds from the Pentagon’s base budget to the separate accounts that pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to lessen the blow of a $26 billion cut to the Pentagon’s base budget mandated by the Budget Control Act approved by Congress in August.
During its markup last week, the Armed Services panel fully funded the $117.8 billion in war spending proposed by the Pentagon, but cut $5 billion because of planned force reductions in Afghanistan and $1.6 billion requested for Afghan security forces. Those and other sizable cuts helped make room within the war accounts for about 75 programs that ordinarily would receive funding through the base budget.
A committee spokesman said on Monday that the funding transfers to the war accounts reflect the panel’s recommendation to pay for items related to the war, regardless of where the administration requested it.
“These activities include funding for war-related equipment and war-related operations, other items essential to prepare our men and women in uniform with the best training and equipment before they are sent into harm’s way, and maintaining readiness of the overall force to respond to overseas contingencies,” the spokesman said.
McCain, however, said the cuts in the war accounts could put troops at risk.
“Cutting $10 billion from the president's request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, shifting over $10 billion in nonwar expenses, and then claiming in a press release that the president's request for the war-fighting accounts are fully supported, is not only a gimmick, it is dishonest with the American people,” McCain said. “It is a disservice to the men and women of the military who depend on that funding for critical war-fighting equipment and support.”
McCain asserted that the appropriators cut funds from the war accounts without knowing the “real needs” of deployed forces amid uncertainty about whether – or how many – U.S. troops would remain in Iraq after the end of the year.
“There is no money in the war-fighting accounts of this bill to pay for those additional troops no matter what the final number may be,” McCain said. “Cutting funds from the war-fighting accounts without knowing what our real needs are puts our troops at risk.”
McCain also suggested that some additional funds may be needed if there are any problems reducing the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. “I can only pray that our withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan goes as smoothly as planned,” McCain said.