Washington DC – March 13, 2014 – Press Release – Today, Lt. General (USA, Ret.) Robert G. Gard, Jr., Chairman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (CACNP) and long-time advocate for a forward-thinking national security strategy, and Lt. Col. (USA, Ret.) Anthony Shaffer, Senior Fellow at the London Center for Research Policy and a member of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, released the following joint statement on the Pentagon’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2015:
“Significantly misleading suggestions abound that the Pentagon is proposing ‘dramatic’ spending cuts that will harm our national security. In fact, the President’s request for defense expenditures for fiscal 2015 is larger than the budget passed by Congress in January for this year.
“Far too much waste, inefficiency, and special interest programming plague the defense budget and drive up costs for the taxpayer. Our country faces serious fiscal and budgetary challenges that must be addressed. If spending more for defense than the next 10 country combined, many of them our allies, is not enough to keep America safe, then something is terribly wrong. Clear opportunities exist to take the politics out of national security spending and ensure that strategic decision makers have a clearer voice in defining priorities.
“Our leaders need to define the actual threats to the security of our country and design a strategy to deal with them – and then fund that strategy. There should not be a three-track approach of a basic defense budget, supplementary ‘wish lists,’ and additional funds for other defense programs added as a kind of ‘slush fund’ into the Overseas Contingency Account, specified for on-going combat operations.
“We must address the emerging threats of the 21st century, not those we faced during the Cold War. Unnecessary expenditures for defense increase the national debt, thereby undermining our economic vitality, which is the very basis of our national strength.”
Lt. General (USA, Ret.) Gard and other CACNP experts are available for further comment and guest bookings by contacting James Lewis at 202.546.0795 X2113 or jlewis@armscontrolcenter.org.
Lt. Col. (USA, Ret.) Anthony Shaffer can be contacted directly for further comment and guest booking inquires at 571-426-1013 or tony.shaffer@c4ads.org.
####The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a Washington-based non-profit think tank working to reduce the number of nuclear weapons stockpiled across the globe, increase international nonproliferation programs targeted at preventing the further proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism, redirect U.S. military spending to address 21st century security threats and halt the proliferation of biological and chemical weapons. www.armscontrolcenter.org
