Budget/Appropriations

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said that President Obama’s 2013 Pentagon budget represents an “unacceptable risk” to U.S. national security.

Lieberman said that the budget was adapting to cuts mandated in the Budget Control Act, which were not proportional to the reduction in threats around the world.

Lieberman said there was no reason the Pentagon would make the recommendation it did “other than you’re required by law to do it.”

“This will be a test of whether reducing the deficit is about talk or action,” the Defense secretary said Tuesday.

The Defense secretary said the spending plan from President Obama will test how committed lawmakers are to reducing the deficit.

The cuts come from war spending, reduction of forces and the cancellation of several weapons programs.

The release of the Obama administration’s 2013 budget Monday will set off a flurry of activity on the defense budget in Congress this week, as the full details of the Pentagon’s first year of budget cuts are revealed.

After the overall budget picture, cuts to Pentagon spending are going to be one of the biggest stories coming out of the president’s budget. The 2013 proposal is the first to deal with a 10-year, $487 billion reduction in Pentagon spending.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta previewed the Pentagon budget last month, saying it entailed base spending of $525 billion, down from $531 billion in 2012 — the first budget request that is smaller than the previous year’s since 1998.

One Republican on the House Armed Services Committee is calling for deeper defense cuts — at least to U.S. forces in Europe, where the Pentagon is cutting two brigades.

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) sent a letter to the Pentagon on Thursday calling for steeper cuts in Europe as part of the Pentagon’s plan to reduce spending by $487 billion over the next decade.

Republicans are regretting their votes for the deal that led to supercommittee failure and $500B in automatic defense cuts.

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, has proposed legislation that would exempt veterans' health programs from any of the required $600 billion in sequestration cuts required this year under the Budget Control Act.

H.R. 3895, the Protect VA Healthcare Act, was introduced after Miller tried to get Obama administration officials to confirm that they would spare VA health programs from any of the cuts, which are required after the supercommittee failed last year to reach an agreement to trim federal spending.

The GOP senators want to prevent $500 billion in automatic defense cuts set to begin in January 2013.

Sen. McCain said the nation's defense should not be compromised by “a domestic issue such as tax increases."