The Gazette - Colorado Springs March 27, 2011
3 wars and no budget worries military community
By Tom Roeder
While fighting overseas in three nations now, the Defense Department is living paycheck to paycheck.
Congress is in full budget gridlock, allowing the government to keep going through stop-gap spending measures called “continuing resolutions.” But that gives the military about two weeks of money at a time, while hamstringing its ability to start new projects and squeezing the financing for others by holding spending to 2010 levels.
Six months into the fiscal year, the Defense Department is without a 2011 budget, and the prospect of a government shutdown looms, which could put thousands of civilian government workers off the job. The temporary spending plan now in place expires in early April, reigniting fears that the Defense Department would be left with three wars and no money.
While Republicans and Democrats promise that soldiers and airmen will get paid, military contracts and civilian workers are in the crosshairs.
And in a community where 40 percent of the economy flows from military largess, business leaders and military followers are watching nervously.
“It is not the way to run a business and it certainly is not the way to run the government,” said retired Army Col. Victor Fernandez of Colorado Springs, a past president of the local chapter of Military Officers Association of America.
The last time the government shutdown, in 1995, the Pentagon wasn’t impacted because Congress passed a defense spending bill before locking down on other spending measures.
Continuing resolutions for the budget are common — Congress passed 21 of them in 2000 — but the duration of the budget impasse this time hasn’t been seen in decades.
This time, defense spending is at the heart of the battle. It’s gotten serious enough that civilian employees at some local bases have been warned of furloughs in the event of a shutdown and a memorandum to the Colorado National Guard told commanders that military personnel on active duty might wind up serving without pay if the government shuts down.
Half or more of the Defense Department’s civilian workforce could be furloughed in a government shutdown.
Active duty troops locally were reluctant last week to talk about the Congressional gridlock. Military personnel have been sternly warned to stay out of politics.
That doesn’t mean they like what’s happening.
“It’s all jacked up,” one soldier, who didn’t want his name used, said on Tejon Street Thursday night.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Denver Democrat, blames politics for the budget debacle.
“I think to call it a chess game gives it too much dignity,” Bennet said. “It’s more like a food fight.”
Colorado Springs Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn blamed Democrat intransigence for the budget deadlock.
He said House Republicans have passed a defense budget, but it has languished in the upper chamber.
So, why is defense stuck in the middle?
The fights in Congress are about items termed “discretionary spending,” meaning everything outside of programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Republicans are pushing steep cuts. Democrats have pushed for cuts, too, but smaller ones that target different programs as the political parties work to behead the other side’s sacred cow.
Of the discretionary spending pie, the Pentagon has the biggest piece, at more than $700 billion.
The high stakes add political drama to the budget fight, which comes less than a year before the 2012 presidential primary season starts.
But, by holding the Defense Department hostage, Congress has virtually assured that it won’t shutdown government. Bennet, Lamborn and two other members of Colorado’s congressional delegation said a budget impasse that cuts off money to the Pentagon is highly unlikely.
“All the members of Congress that I have talked to feel, as I do, that anyone who is engaged in national security and the defense of this country is not going to be impacted,” said Colorado’s Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman.
But negotiators seem no closer to cutting a deal for a defense budget.
“I have no idea why we are behaving this way,” said U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Boulder Democrat.
That means military bases in the Pikes Peak region will have to muddle through with short-term budgets that are based on 2010 spending plans.
“That’s one of the real concerns under a continuing resolution, no new contracts are let and we’re frozen under last year’s funding levels,” said Brian Binn, President of Military Affairs for the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.
The Army and Air Force are concerned that the spending restraints could lead to work stoppages on construction projects and slow purchases of big-ticket items, including satellites.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ed Soriano of Colorado Springs was on active duty during similar budget crunches in the 1990s.
“It’s tough, tough, tough,” he said, noting that everything from buying weapons to hiring contractors to get the lawns mowed can be put on hold by Congressional wrangling.
Local commanders say, so far, the budget problems haven’t been detrimental. That will change, though, experts said.
“Every week that goes by, you have a budget that’s further and further out of whack with your requirements,” said John Pike, with the Virginia-based think tank GlobalSecurity.org.
It’s clear the military community is tired of the budget battles.
“Why can’t we pass a budget? Let’s get it done,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Norm Andersson who now runs a small defense contracting firm in Colorado Springs. “The political wrangling back and forth is a serious disservice to the nation as a whole.”
© Copyright 2011, Freedom Communications
