Remember back when the incoming Republican majority of the House Armed Services Committee was freaking out about Defense Secretary Robert Gates "cutting" defense? *Why, he was getting rid of the Marines' swimming tank! He hates the alternate engine for the F-35! *But during today's hearing on Gates' proposed 2012 budget, Gates heard quibbles, respectful disagreements and token opposition.
How come? For one thing, Gates' budget doesn't actually cut defense, it just slows the rate of its funding growth. For another, the 2012 budget satisfies several major GOP defense concerns. Republicans love missile defense and shipbuilding. Guess what: the budget boosts missile defense by half a billion dollars and supports building ten more ships.
Gates also won over Republicans by making a vociferous case that they've got to ensure Congress pass a defense budget for the current fiscal year instead of funding the military through the continuing resolution carrying cash over from last year. It'll cause a "crisis" to restrict the Pentagon to the resolution's allotment of $523 billion, Gates said, ticking off the "fewer flying hours, fewer steaming days" and other restrictions.
Effectively, Gates was pushing GOPers for the greater defense spending they already want. It also had the effect of taking much of the urgency out of the 2012 budget. The committee chairman, Buck McKeon, said that he and Gates were in "very strong agreement" on getting a fiscal-2011 budget passed. That helped set the tone for the hearing.
Where Republican members wanted to parry with Gates, they fought largely on his terms. The major dispute during the hearing came when several GOPers, including Virginia's Randy Forbes and Texas' Mike Conaway, challenged Gates to audit the Defense Department's entire operations, in order to be responsible stewards of the half-trillion he's requesting from Congress. That definitely made Gates bristle: he vowed that producing a full audit was a "high priority" and said that he had over "10,000 lawyers" to fight against waste.
But funny thing: demanding an audit is a tool to hold Gates' feet to the fire on getting needless programs out of the Pentagon budget, which is why those who want to cut it even deeper than Gates does are pressing for one.
Aside from the question of cutting the size of the ground forces, a final area of dispute -- and not from many GOPers during the three hour hearing -- came over a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter family of jets. McKeon is a big proponent of funding the engine, something Gates has vowed to kill for years. The chairman's case is that only having one engine for the F-35 variants will drive up the already ginormous costs; Adm. Mike Mullen replied that the costs will be forced down by buying in bulk.
The issue didn't really get resolved in the hearing. But shortly after it ended, the full House voted to cut funding for the second engine out of the fiscal 2011 defense bill that it's now seeking to pass. That would be two wins at once for Gates if the 2011 budget passes.
For you obsessives, the decision to cancel the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle barely came up, and Gates pledged his full commitment to a future amphibious vehicle to get Marines from ship to shore.
Perhaps most gratifying to Republicans, Gates firmly argued that the Pentagon's huge budget isn't the cause of the nation's deficit woes and making "dramatic changes" to the U.S.' global constellation of overseas bases would be "very destabilizing" to its alliances -- both of which are arguments ready-made to throw at Gates' Democratic successor. Why, it's almost like this guy spent decades as a Republican foreign-policy wise man or something.
All in all, not a bad way to get through a final round of budgetary jousting with the House Armed Services Committee. It's worth remembering that when Gates prepared to unveil his "efficiencies" -- program cuts and restrictions in the rate of growth for the defense budget -- top conservative defense expert Tom Donnelly lamented to Danger Room that Gates was going to run the table on House GOPers. After today's hearing, Donnelly looks pretty prescient.
*Photo: DoD
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