John Kerry's position on Defense Spending

Defense Spending: While debating over the war in Iraq and the war on terror, the issue of which candidate would spend the necessary funding to defend our nation has come to our attention.

John Kerry

Description of candidate's position: Kerry's first order would be to add more active duty soldiers and double our Special Forces by giving service-for-college incentives. For every two years one serves in the military, Kerry will offer four years tuition at any public university. He determines to pay for this by letting the market set rates for loans. Kerry has not opposed a Pentagon appropriations bill since 1996 and has not done so in 16 of his 19 years in the Senate. The appropriations bills did include some mainstay weapons systems such as the M-1 Abrams Tank and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle but never against any of those specific weapons. He did cast votes more than a decade ago against the B-2 Stealth Bomber in 1989, 1991 and 1992. But by 1992 even President Bush (the current incumbent's father) was calling for cancellation of the B-2 and promising to cut military spending by 30% in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Link Kerry has also been for banning anti-satellite weapons as long as the Soviet Union stopped testing, which was a good idea since we use satellites for our smart bombs. He has also voted to ban nerve-gas weapons. In 1991, he opposed a 2% cut in the military budget. In 1992, he opposed a cut of $1 billion to Pentagon Intelligence programs. In 1994, he voted against a motion to cut $30.5 billion from defense over the next five years. In 1994, he opposed an amendment to postpone construction of a new aircraft carrier. He also opposed cutting six F-18 jet fighters. Other distortions about Kerry's record on defense can be found at this link also.

Quotation from the candidate: "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as President. Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response. I will never give any nation or international institution a veto over our national security. And I will build a stronger American military. We will add 40,000 active duty troops - not in Iraq, but to strengthen American forces that are now overstretched, overextended, and under pressure. We will double our special forces to conduct anti-terrorist operations. We will provide our troops with the newest weapons and technology to save their lives - and win the battle. And we will end the backdoor draft of National Guard and reservists. To all who serve in our armed forces today, I say, help is on the way. As President, I will fight a smarter, more effective war on terror. We will deploy every tool in our arsenal: our economic as well as our military might; our principles as well as our firepower." Link

Assessment of the Proposal:

Positive: The Heritage Foundation is an conservative site that does policy research and analysis of the budget. They think that President Bush sorely lacks "self-discipline required balancing fiscal priorities." Link

Negative: Democratic Georgia Senator Zell Miller listed names of weapons that Kerry has opposed in the past, but hasn't within this decade. Link

Comparison: President Bush is clearly a big spender on defense which some claim is needed at this time while others claim that he is being too irresponsible. Senator Kerry has been for defense cuts in the past but has eased up within the last decade or so.

Link to Bush Defense Spending