budget cuts

You are here: Archives / budget cuts

11:03 AM, Feb 26, 2013 • By MICHAEL WARREN

The New York Times reported Monday that congressional Republicans were split on the coming defense budget sequestration, with many in the GOP suggesting the cuts ought to go through because "fiscal questions trump defense" Now, more than 70 foreign policy experts, including prominent Republicans and Democrats, have signed a letter drafted by the Foreign Policy Initiative that urges congressional leaders to act and stop the sequestration. A copy of the letter is running as an ad in Tuesday's print edition of Politico.

"Sequestration will result in unacceptable risk for U.S. national security," the letter reads. "It will degrade our ability to defend our allies, deter aggres- sion, and promote and protect American economic interests. It will erode the credibility of our treaty commitments abroad. It will be a self-inflicted wound to American strength and leadership in the world. History will not look kindly on this abdication of responsibility, but will hold accountable the President and the Congress who together chose such a dangerous course."

Read the full letter and see its signatories below:

On Tuesday afternoon, President Barack Obama will meet with Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have been outspoken about halting the sequestration and maintaining the defense spending threatened by those cuts. Graham told CNN he hopes to speak with Obama about sequestration.

By cutting government.

Sep 12, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 48 • By ELI LEHRER & BEN SCHREIBER

7:00 PM, Jul 30, 2011 • By JOHN MCCORMACK

6:00 PM, Jul 25, 2011 • By JOHN MCCORMACK

As Fred Barnes writes, it's not clear that there are enough Republican votes for John Boehner's new debt ceiling plan. But the speaker got a big boost on his right flank today from Congressman Allen West (R, Fla.). Jamie Dupree reports that West, an outspoken conservative and Tea Party favorite, is supporting Boehner's plan.

3:41 PM, Jul 25, 2011 • By JOHN MCCORMACK

Senate majority leader Harry Reid introduced a proposal today that he says would give Republicans everything they want in a debt ceiling deal: It would reduce the deficit by $2.7 trillion over 10 years, without raising taxes. But the plan was light on details of what gets cut--and when.

The controversial Wisconsin budget reform saves teachers’ jobs.

Aug 1, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 43 • By JOHN MCCORMACK

Emily Koczela had been anxiously waiting for months for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair bill to take effect. Koczela, the finance director for the Brown Deer school district, had been negotiating with the local union, trying to get it to accept concessions in order to make up for a $1 million budget shortfall. But the union wouldn’t budge.

1:49 PM, Jul 21, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARREN

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, has released a statement on the Gang of Six deficit reduction proposal:

Jun 20, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 38 • By JAMIE M. FLY and WILLIAM KRISTOL

Jun 6, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 36 • By GARY SCHMITT and THOMAS DONNELLY

Starving for attention.

6:01 PM, Apr 14, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARREN

Yesterday afternoon, while the House Republican leadership was busy securing votes for the 2011 budget deal forged last week, a small group of House Democrats met to discuss with the press and the public their ongoing participation in “Hungerfast,” a nationwide hunger strike (which supposedly has over 36,000 participants) protesting cuts to federal food and nutrition programs.

5:18 PM, Apr 13, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

In February, Defense secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sounded a cautionary note at a congressional hearing on the defense budget. "We shrink from our global security responsibilities at our peril," Gates warned members of Congress. "Retrenchment brought about by short-sighted cuts could well lead to costlier and more tragic consequences later, indeed, as they always have in the past."

Who will speak for national security?

3:36 PM, Apr 13, 2011 • By THOMAS DONNELLY

In proposing to cut another $400 billion from U.S. defense budgets over the next ten years as part of his deficit reduction counter-offer, Barack Obama’s words were few. Yet they were revealing.