Proposals to increase out-of-pocket fees and alter benefits for U.S. troops in fiscal year 2016 show President Obama is in “campaign mode” when it comes to Pentagon spending, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said Monday.
{mosads}“I’m afraid we have a president who’s on a campaign mission,” Thornberry said during roundtable with reporters.
He chided the administration’s $4 trillion budget for pushing increased spending and taxes, saying “it makes me wonder how serious he is about solving” the challenge of sequestration.
“The attitude the president has taken so far that they are very much in campaign mode not in a ‘what can we do together’ mode,” said Thornberry, citing Obama’s most recent State of the Union speech.
“Maybe that’s fine for taxes or highways or education; it’s not fine for national security,” he added.
The White House on Monday proposed a $534.3 billion Department of Defense (DOD) base budget for fiscal 2016, an increase of $38.2 billion over the amount approved by Congress this year, and $11 billion over the spending caps put in place by sequestration.
The DOD budget plan calls for troops to receive a 1.3 percent pay raise increase in fiscal 2016, less than the average 1.8 percent annual increase for private industry employees.
Basic housing allowances for services members would be cut by 4 percent over the next two to three years and $300 million in subsidies for commissaries would also be cut.
“What we need is a president to work with us, who will take his responsibilities as commander in chief as seriously as those responsibilities demand and as seriously as the world we live in demands,” he told reporters.
“That’s what we need, not someone playing games. I’m afraid that this campaign style approach the president’s using tends to polarize people and that makes it harder to get things done,” Thornberry added.
He said he wasn’t sure if the White House was trying to send a message by submitting a budget that included the proposals and busted sequester spending caps.
“I don’t have a clue if they’re trying to say something or not. If so it’s quite passing me by,” Thornberry said.