CCAGW to Obama: Veto of Defense Bill First Test of Fiscal Backbone

(Washington, D.C.) - The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today urged President Obama to make good on his promise to begin cutting $17 billion from the fiscal year 2010 budget by vetoing the fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization Act scheduled to come to his desk within the next week.  The bill contains funding for seven additional F-22 fighter planes and $603 million for the Joint Strike Fighter’s (JSF) alternate engine program, both of which are opposed by the Pentagon and have been targeted for elimination in the President’s budget.

“This will be a test of the President’s mettle,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  “The President targeted both of these programs as wasteful and unnecessary.  The Office of Management and Budget’s June 24 Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) warned of a veto if Congress included funding for the F-22 and JSF alternate engine in defense funding bills.  Congress thumbed its nose at him and taxpayers are about to discover whether President Obama intends to keep his promise to slice $17 billion from the bloated budget.”

The SAP strongly objected to the “provisions in the bill authorizing $369 million in advanced procurement funds for F-22s in FY 2011.”  The SAP also said that funding the alternate engine would “delay the fielding of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) capability and capacity, adversely impacting the Department’s overall strike fighter inventory…The current engine is performing well with more than 11,000 test hours.  Expenditures on a second engine are unnecessary and impede the progress of the overall JSF program.  Alleged risks of a fleet-wide grounding due to a single engine are exaggerated.”

In The Hill on July 7, reporter Roxanne Tiron quoted Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) as dismissing the President’s veto threats, claiming that the President will sign the bill in the end because he agrees with 98 percent of its content.

“In the past several weeks, Americans have become greatly concerned with the record deficits and debt in Washington, and they are aware of the devastating impact of failing to get spending under control.  A veto of the Defense Authorization Act would show that President Obama has some fiscal backbone and would send a positive message to taxpayers, as well as other nations that have expressed deep concern about U.S. fiscal policy.  Failing to live up to his word would be a signal that the floodgates of wasteful spending remain open, and keep the nation is still not on track to a fiscal responsible future,” Schatz concluded.

CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. 

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