1.2: Spending Cuts
CUT BOTH SECURITY AND NON-SECURITY SPENDING. Other Information:
Establish firewall between the two categories through 2015, and require equal percentage cuts from both sides. One of the
Commission’s guiding principles is that everything must be on the table. In order to achieve real spending discipline, Congress
and the President must be willing to cut excess spending wherever they find it. Past budget agreements in 1990, 1993, and
1997 established firewalls between defense and non-defense expenditures, requiring savings from both categories to keep spending
levels below the caps. Some past firewalls have also separated international affairs and other categories. With new homeland
security expenditures and increased spending on veterans and international affairs, though, a firewall between security and
non-security spending is appropriate. The security category would include all defense spending, although for purposes of the
caps we address war spending separately. It would also include spending on nuclear weapons, homeland security, veterans, and
international affairs. All security spending, which constitutes about two-thirds of the discretionary budget, has one overriding
goal: to keep the nation safe. The remaining third of the discretionary budget is dedicated to non-security programs – the
large array of domestic activities, including education, housing, law enforcement, research, public health, culture, poverty
reduction, and other programs. The spending caps will remain in place through 2020, but consistent with past agreements, the
firewalls will lapse after 2015 in case adjustments in the balance between categories become necessary.
Indicator(s):
|
