US military leaders welcome Republican budget bill

Associated Press

Posted on March 6, 2013 at 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Republican proposal to prevent a U.S. government shutdown is gaining momentum, winning the support of the nation's senior military leaders who said the measure would ease some of the pain of spending cutbacks slamming the Defense Department.

Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appearing before Congress on Tuesday, painted a dire picture of construction projects on hold and limits on aircraft carriers patrolling the waters due to the across-the-board cuts that kicked in Friday.

The automatic cuts took effect after President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans failed to overcome bitter differences and come up with a better plan for dealing with the burgeoning U.S. debt. The cuts would carve $85 billion in spending from the government's $3.6 trillion budget for this year.

The proposed Republican measure would leave in place those cuts ? 5 percent to domestic agencies and 7.8 percent to the Pentagon ? but it would fund day-to-day federal operations through September.

The measure is set to advance through the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a majority of seats, on Thursday in hopes of preventing a government shutdown before a six-month spending bill passed last September runs out March 27.

Problematic for the Pentagon has been the combination of the automatic cuts and the government still operating at last year's spending levels. The Republican measure unveiled on Monday would give the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments sought-after flexibility in spending that other agencies lack.

The military leaders embraced that prospect, a political boost for the Republican measure just days before the House votes.

"It mitigates at least one-third of our problem," said Army Gen. Raymond Odierno.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of Naval Operations, said the bill would be "almost night and day," with a shortfall of $8.6 billion in operations reduced by more than half.

Marine Corps Gen. James Amos said he was heartened by the legislation.

The White House weighed in Tuesday with a statement criticizing the House measure for failing to provide enough money to implement Obama's signature legislation to overhaul financial regulation and the U.S. health care system. The statement, however, did not threaten a veto.

The White House said the measure "raises concerns about the government's ability to protect consumers, avoid deep cuts in critical services that families depend on, and implement critical domestic priorities such as access to quality and affordable health care."

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said that bipartisan talks were under way on changes that the Democratic-controlled Senate would make to the House measure. He said that the House Republican leadership doesn't expect the Senate to simply approve the House bill without changes.

"There seems to be no interest on either side in having a kind of confrontational government shutdown scenario," McConnell said.

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Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Andrew Taylor and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.whas11.com/news/business/195475061.html

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