May 21, 1998

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS

FROM: GARY SCHMITT

SUBJECT: Defense

With both the Senate and the House debating the 1999 defense authorization bill, the issue of defense spending is again on the table. In the past three years, the Republican-controlled Congress increased defense expenditures by a modest amount over the Clinton Administration's request. This year, both the House and Senate defense committees have recommended the same level of funding -- $270.6 billion -- as requested by the Administration. This question might, therefore, be asked: is there any discernible difference between the two parties now on the issue of America's defenses?

Deep cuts in defense spending over the past five years have created a dangerous gap between U.S. national security strategy and the forces needed to carry out that strategy. Based upon the course charted in last year's Balanced Budget Act, the superb military created in the 1980s will, by the time President Clinton leaves office, have been depleted and downsized, and much of its equipment will have reached the end of its useful life. When the requirements for maintaining America's military commitments and preeminence around the globe are matched against the resources being provided to the Defense Department, there is little doubt that we are headed for a major national security train wreck. When that happens, who, in retrospect, will bear the most blame? The Clinton Administration, irresponsibly living off the investments of previous administrations? The Joint Chiefs of Staff, who held their tongues while their services were gutted? Or the Congress, whose green-eyeshades approach to national security is in danger of making the party of Ronald Reagan complicit with the party of Bill Clinton?