By Josh Rogin
THE CABLE

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his would-be vice president Paul Ryan, and defense hawks in Congress are wrong that savings can’t be found in the U.S. defense budget, according to Grover Norquist, the influential president of Americans for Tax Reform, who said that he will fight using any new revenues to keep military spending high.

“We can afford to have an adequate national defense which keeps us free and safe and keeps everybody afraid to throw a punch at us, as long as we don’t make some of the decisions that previous administrations have, which is to over extend ourselves overseas and think we can run foreign governments,” Norquist said Monday at an event at the Center for the National Interest, formerly the Nixon Center.

But Ryan’s views are at odds with those of Norquist and other budget hawks, who argue that defense budgets can be trimmed. Ryan’s budget plan provides for increasing military spending and doesn’t suggest any tradeoff or specific defense reforms.

“Other people need to lead the argument on how can conservatives lead a fight to have a serious national defense without wasting money,” Norquist said. “I wouldn’t ask Ryan to be the reformer of the defense establishment.”

Avoiding $54 billion of arbitrary defense cuts next year as a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, in what’s known as “sequestration,” has been a focus of Romney’s campaign and one of his main points of contrast with President Obama. Romney’s views align him with defense hawks who are leading that effort on the Hill, such as House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who support closing tax loopholes and deductions to avoid sequestration.

Read full article

Related articles

• Grover Norquist Wants Cuts in Military Spending (crooksandliars.com)
• Norquist Comes Out Against Growth in the Military Budget (news.firedoglake.com)
• Conservative Icon Norquist: ‘I Wouldn’t Ask Ryan To Be The Reformer’ Of Defense Spending (thinkprogress.org)
• Grover Norquist Takes On Paul Ryan and the War Party (economicpolicyjournal.com)
• Romney’s Paul Ryan VP Pick Pleases War Hawks (news.antiwar.com)