President Obama's proposal to slash our military budget by $487 billion is alarming, especially when he has sworn to "preserve, protect and defend" the United States Constitution that lists providing "for the common defence" as one of the federal government's most fundamentally important duties.
By enacting such legislation as the $2.6 trillion Obamacare health law and the failed trillion-dollar stimulus, this White House has presided over the largest government expansion and irresponsible spending spree in generations. But rather than act responsibly to reduce our $15 trillion-plus national debt, the president has hatched a reckless plan to put our national defense - including, possibly, Hill Air Force Base - on the chopping block.
In other words, the president wants to Defense Department to pay the price for his administration's profligate spending. That was one senior Pentagon official's main concern when Congress was considering the $2.6 health law. He remarked at the time that he feared the military would bear the burden of that massive and costly expansion of government.
He was right.
But no matter how the president spins it, his proposed defense cuts are plain wrong. Cuts to the defense budget, no matter how drastic, won't begin to pay down our national debt. And doing so at the expense of national security is all the more egregious when the government is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to fund such items as turtle tunnels and studies of drunk mice, the genetic makeup of ants and the mating decisions of cactus bugs.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems intent on gutting America's defenses and putting our brave men and women at risk anyway.
Why?
Evidently, the president thinks appeasing his anti-military political base in an election year is more important than keeping America safe. He is advancing the dangerous notion that it is OK to budget just enough to meet some of our threats instead all of them. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon calls it "a lead from behind strategy for a left-behind America," one that "ensures American decline in exchange for more failed domestic programs" and revokes "the guarantee that America will support our allies, defend our interests and defy our opponents."
I could not agree more.
The president's proposal would in all likelihood cut the size of our fighting force and curtail or scrap the critical aircraft, ships and weapons system our military needs to carry out its mission. The cuts would further erode the longstanding commitment from previous administrations -- both Republican and Democrat -- to ensure our military is equipped to handle two simultaneous major operations, much like what happened in World War II.
There also could be very grave consequences for Utah. People working at Hill Air Force Base should understand that the president's refusal to repeal Obamacare or tackle the other root causes of our nation's debt problem could put in jeopardy the vitally important work they do to protect our nation. This is unacceptable. And I will fight to ensure critical defense dollars are not taken away to support the administration's radical and unsustainable expansion of government.
Fortunately, I have the experience to carry on this fight. Hill Air Force Base has been targeted before, and I and other members of Utah's congressional delegation were successful in saving it by making a case that its workforce is second to none and that it must retain its critically important role in keeping America safe.
I am ready to make that case again. That is why I spoke to the secretary of the Air Force this week. It is also why I am in constant contact with the Air Force, my congressional colleagues, Gov. Gary Herbert, state legislators and other leaders around the state. I am committed to continue the fight to cut our national debt in a manner that does not put our national security in harm's way.
After all, when Americans enlist in the military, they solemnly swear to "support and defend the Constitution ... against all enemies, foreign and domestic." The American people need to know and have every right to expect that their commander-in-chief is just as committed to our nation's security.
Hatch, a Republican, is Utah's senior senator.
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