Today, Congressman Carney took to Facebook to burnish his cred in the Fiscal Austerity Games, to tell us all that he was named as one of the “Fiscal Heros” of the front group Fix the Debt (Senators Carper and Coons are in this group, too):
I’m humbled to have been named one of Fix the Debt’s Fiscal Heroes, but there is much more work to be done. For far too long, both Democrats and Republicans have spent trillions of dollars the nation didn’t have. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make the tough decisions necessary to put the country on better fiscal footing.
Unfortunately, Congressman Carney just voted YES to authorize the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization bill — a bill that specifically INCREASES the budget for the DoD. Increases DOD programs over the objections of the DoD:
- Keeping the A-10 Warthog (a vehicle no DOD agency wants)
- the Army cannot shrink its force
- Apache helicopters can’t be moved from the National Guard to the Army
- Prohibits another round of BRAC
would give the services billions in order to refuel the aircraft carrier George Washington, develop missile defenses with Israel, buy EA-18G aircraft and upgrade Abrams tanks — projects not budgeted in the Obama administration’s 2015 Pentagon spending request.
The bill would shift $796.2 million to refuel the GW and maintain an 11-carrier fleet, $450 million for five EA-18Gs, $348 million for the “Israeli Cooperative Missile Defense” program, $800 million for the Navy’s amphibious ship program and $120 million for the Abrams upgrades.
The House’s version of the NDAA also denies funding to implement protections against climate change for DOD facilities. It doesn’t matter that the DOD is doing this not just to maintain their capabilities, but also to protect expensive taxpayer assets. And, if you don’t know, the DOD really is at the forefront of dealing with climate change issues, too. They get the threat of something like sea level rise to Naval bases.
There were plenty of tough choices (not enough, really, but a start) on an overcommitment to defense spending made in the budget the DOD produced and the House couldn’t live with even this small bit of fiscal conservatism.
And John Carney voted for *this* — MORE SPENDING — rather than stand with the people who got the message that less spending was necessary.
But, as you can also see, he was able to save the cyber security mission of the DE National Guard, so I guess that some spending is better than others. There’s nothing about Fixing the Debt in voting to continue to spend money that even the DOD doesn’t want.