Intense debate has arisen in recent weeks over how much the defense budget should be cut — if at all — to help reduce the government’s crushing debt burden. In the deal being hashed out by the White House and congressional leaders, the Pentagon may lose $700 billion, 75 percent more than President Barack Obama originally requested,
The Hill reports.
In his initial budget, Obama pushed the Defense Department and other national-security agencies to shrink spending $400 billion by 2023.
However, the ante has been raised in talks to combine a debt-ceiling increase with a reduction in the $1 trillion-plus budget deficit.
Still, an agreement for such a deep cut won’t come easy.
“Robust defense spending and lower taxes have been two hallmarks of the Republican Party for years,” one former GOP House staffer told The Hill. “And those two things are going to be in direct competition with one another.”
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