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Tuesday, January 30, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Daniel Starling/KANSAN
Attention
Navy ROTC Drill Team Capt. Chris Pifster, left, Overland Park Junior, practice next to the Military Science Building. The KU Navy ROTC Drill inspects naval positions' positions of parade rest during an informal Team will compete at the University of Nebraska on Feb. 10.
Bush calls for slowing defense growth
Proposed defense increase less than rate of inflation; big-ticket programs spared
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Citing "phenomenal change" in the Soviet bloc and tight fiscal times at home, the secretary of defense on Monday asked Congress to hold Pentagon spending to a 2 percent increase next year. That is less than the rate of inflation.
However, Secretary Dick Cheney recommended sparing such big-ticket programs as the B-2 Stealth bomber and the Strategic Defense Initiative in the Bush administration's $292.1 billion spending request for fiscal 1991.
Though the Red Army is withdrawing from Eastern European countries, he said, the Soviet Union's ethical strategic arsenal is being updated.
"There are those who are arguing now that, in light of the developments we've seen in the world,
somehow we need to fundamentally alter U.S. military strategy. I think that a mistake.” Cheney told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. “I think that strategy has directly contributed to the collapse we see in the Soviet Union.”
The Pentagon's fiscal 1991 budget plan for the 12 months starting October, 1 shows an increase from this year's $268.8 billion in outlays to $252.1 billion. That increase is due to reduction after adjusting for inflation.
As he dispatched the budget to Capitol Hill, Cheney also proposed closing or reducing more than 72 installations in the United States and 12 sites overseas.
Both documents are likely to provoke heated responses from lawmakers, who last year cut President Bush's request for SDI funds and who are embracing military base睁ings in their districts.
Cheney said the suggested base closures amounted to "a real test for Congress," including members who had called for reduced military spending in hopes of a "peace dividend" for domestic programs.
"Here's a simple way to do it," Cheney said.
He denied that politics had anything to do with the targeted sites, even though many were in Democrats' districts.
The Pentagon gave no estimate of eventual savings from the base closings, which require congressional appropriations for the initial expense of shutting them down.
The budget plan includes five B-2 Stealth bombers, costing a total of $5.5 billion. The bat-winged, radar-aviding planes have given lawmakers "sticker shock" with their $330 individual price tags. Congress approved two of the three stealth bombers requested last year, but the addition of five more is certain to be resisted.
funds for SDI, the space-based anti-missile system popularly known as Star Wars, would be increased by $300 million, to $4.5 billion. Including $300 million in Energy Department money, the program would get $4.8 billion under the budget plan, $1 billion more than Congress approved last year.
Dozens of bases could be closed by spending cuts
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Dick Cheney yesterday recommended closing or scaling back more than 72 U.S. military installations and ending operations at 12 sites overseas. The plan immediately drew congressional fire.
"I understand the problem they're faced with, but it's absolutely vital that Congress have the guts to make the right decisions as we go through this period of time." Cheney said as he released $292.1 billion fiscal 1991 spending plan — with the base closing proposal — and signaled lawmakers that the battle had begun.
Cheney said he had no figures yet for the potential savings from the moves. He said the numbers still were being analyzed.
But because it costs money to shut down bases and legislation is needed to do so, the savings usually are not accrued until years later.
The plan, far less extensive than the 86 closings and five realignments that Congress adopted last year from a federally mandated commission, calls for closing a significant number of installations in California.
Among the candidates for closure there are Fort Ord, Alameda Naval Aviation Depot and Naval Air Station, Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Field Naval Air Station and Oakland Naval Supply Center in California.
Asked whether politics influenced the choices on the closing list, which largely targets bases in the districts that have been most affected, Cheney said the charge wasn't valid.
"I did not assemble this list," said Cheney, formerly a former Republican congressman from Wyoming. The list was compiled by the military, said Cheney, who smiled at suggestions that the military may have been political in its choices.
Other Cheny proposals include deactivation of the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, which would involve the loss of 12,000 troops.
Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, rushed into action to try to work out a deal to save the division.
"We worked out an agreement that if we are able to successfully negotiate round one of the conventional disarmament agreement with the Soviets, that would bring home 21,600 Army personnel from Europe, and the first 12,000 of those would go to Fort Hood." Gramm said in Texas.
But he added, "The Army is looking at a reduction of 135,000 men in uniform. There's no way you can do that," he insists. We want to minimize that effect."
The overseas sites where the United States would end its operations or realign forces include seven in Europe, six in Asia and a Naval Air Station in Bermuda. Of the 14, all would be closed except the Bermuda air station and naval communications station in the Philippines, which would have some forces shifted.
The European bases include two in Greece: Hellenikon Air Base and the Naval Communications Station in Makri; one in West Germany: Zweibrucken Air Base; three in England: RAF Fairford, Greenham Common and Wethersfield; and one in Italy: Comiso Air Base.
Comiso and Greenham Common are home to Air Force cruise missile installations that are being dismantled under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Soviet Union, signed in December 1987.
The Asian bases on Cheney's list are a Navy base in San Miguel, Philippines; two bases in Turkey; Eskisehir Munitions Storage Site and Erhac Air Base; and three in South Korea: Kwang Ju, Suwon and Taegu.
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga. and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that the base closure proposals would be controversial.
Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo-, and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said her military installations subcommittee would take a close look to ensure that the closings were not partisan.
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