Rep. Brooks warns against defense cuts that could follow debt-ceiling deal

Freshman Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), one of the 66 GOP opponents of the debt-ceiling agreement that the House approved Aug. 1, is warning against Department of Defense cuts that could either be recommended by the congressional “supercommittee,” or occur automatically if that panel fails to find agreement on how to trim spending.

“National defense should be one of the last cuts,” Brooks said in a meeting with voters in Alabama, as reported by TimesDaily of Florence, Ala. “It produces jobs, just as NASA produces technology and produces jobs. My first concern is the threat of who could get cut. My second concern is, do they push the easy button and just raise taxes?”

Earlier this month, Brooks listed the possibility of defense cuts as a major reason he opposed the agreement. The 12-member supercommittee could recommend defense cuts as part of a package that the majority approves.

But under the agreement, failure by the supercommittee to agree on more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years would lead to an automatic cut of $60 billion in defense spending in FY 2013.

In Alabama this week, Brooks said the federal budget crisis is due not to military spending, but entitlement spending, and that cuts should focus on entitlements.

“Entitlement programs are the biggest bite of the apple and have to be reformed,” he said. “We can’t afford to pay for them.”

Brooks was one of several Republicans who opposed the final agreement because it did not require congressional passage of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution as a condition of increasing the debt ceiling. Instead, it only requires a vote on an amendment later this year.