Pavlich: GOP gets green light on cuts

In his efforts to keep campaign promises, President Trump has asked for a significant and historic increase in defense spending, a valid responsibility of the federal government. The total request is about $54 billion and will go toward a badly needed resupplying of the military.

The president’s decision to focus on defense isn’t so much a military buildup as it is a maintenance project. As explained by Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) office last year, “The readiness crisis in our military has gotten so bad that Marines and Air Force pilots are literally going to museums to pull spare parts off old ships and airplanes.”

According to the Heritage Foundation, only a third of the Navy is fully mission-capable.

But the $54 billion has to come from somewhere, and the White House argues less useful government agencies will be reallocating resources to balance the books.

{mosads}“We will rebuild the nation’s military. An increase in defense spending, including increased funding for our veterans and our border, will be matched by equal reductions in nondefense programs,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday. “The savings in our budget will come from looking at outdated and duplicative programs. The reductions spending will be sensible and rational, but they will also be tough.”

We’re already starting to see details about which agencies will see major cuts, with the EPA leading the way. The administration plans to slash the EPA budget by $2 billion, a 25 percent decrease in addition to eliminating 3,000 jobs. Overall, Trump says he won’t be filling unnecessary federal government positions.

“When I see a story about ‘Donald Trump didn’t fill hundreds and hundreds of jobs,’ it’s because, in many cases, we don’t want to fill those jobs,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” this week. “You know, we have so many people in government, even me. I look at some of the jobs, and it’s people over people over people. I say, ‘What do all these people do?’ You don’t need all those jobs.”

Trump’s request to bolster defense is a warranted, important function of the federal government, and it finally gives Republicans the green light to cut wasteful spending in agencies across the board. Democrats will scream that the cuts are extreme and dangerous. These exaggerations should be ignored.

Each year Citizens Against Government Waste releases the “Congressional Pig Book.” Outrage over spending for shrimp on treadmills, combating Goth culture studies, bridges to nowhere, etc. ensues for about a week, and then the waste continues.

For the past eight years, Republicans have loudly criticized the Obama administration for running up the federal debt to nearly $20 trillion while deficit spending year after year on temporary budget solutions. Now the GOP can stop the bleeding and change the spending culture.

“With our nation’s debt spiraling out of control, we simply must take a look at the way we’re spending taxpayers’ dollars,” Spicer said about the president’s budget goals. “Families across the country are being forced to make difficult choices, because for too long the federal government has not treated their money with the respect they deserve.”

With members of the Freedom Caucus leading the way and the backing of the White House, it will be imperative for Republicans to maintain their philosophy of less spending in order to induce smaller government.

Trump’s demand that defense spending be offset by cutting waste elsewhere in the budget finally gives Republicans the green light they need to remove duplicative, wasteful programs. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense also has plenty of waste and overspending that should be scrutinized and removed. The administration should be open to cutting unnecessary spending there, too.

In order to truly get deficit spending and federal debt under control, the Trump administration is going to have to eventually address entitlement reform. If not, Trump will not only become part of the Washington status quo on the issue, but will leave burdensome and expensive problems for future generations.

For now, cutting bad, duplicative, wasteful federal government programs in the president’s budget is a good start and gives Republicans more backbone to advocate for the same on Capitol Hill.

Pavlich is editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.