Eldridge Campaign Statement on Senator Boozman’s Second TV Ad
LITTLE ROCK – The Conner Eldridge for U.S. Senate campaign today released the following statement in response to Senator Boozman releasing his second television ad of the 2016 campaign cycle, entitled “Conservative.” Eldridge is a former prosecutor and former U.S. Attorney who is running for the U.S. Senate.
Statement from Brad Howard, campaign manager for Conner Eldridge:
“Fifteen years in Washington has changed John Boozman into the consummate politician – doing one thing in Washington and saying another here in Arkansas just to win an election. Senator Boozman says he’s fought for a ‘strong military,’ but he voted for the Budget Control Act that allowed sequestration, both of which have slashed much-needed military spending when the threat from ISIS grows stronger every day. Senator Boozman has said sequestration is ‘actually working,’ but the reality is the sequester and Washington’s dysfunction have made us less safe – and so has Senator Boozman’s failed leadership.”
“The full force of the sequester is expected to furlough about 4,000 civilian Department of Defense employees in Arkansas, cut Army base funding in Arkansas by $1.6 million and cut Air Force operations in Arkansas by $1.6 million. Arkansas needs a senator who will stand up and fight for our military, our veterans and jobs in our state. It’s time for a change.”
BACKGROUND:
Boozman Voted For Budget Control Act That Set Up Sequestration. In August 2011, Boozman voted for a: “Reid, D-Nev., motion to concur in the House amendment to the bill that would provide a process to reduce the deficit by up to $2.4 trillion. The measure would allow the president to raise the debt limit immediately by $400 billion, with an additional $500 billion subject to a resolution of disapproval. It would set discretionary spending caps that would reduce the deficit by $917 billion in fiscal 2012 through 2021 and establish a firewall between security and non-security spending for fiscal 2012 and 2013. It would establish a bipartisan, bicameral committee tasked with making recommendations to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion. It would require across-the-board cuts to non-exempt discretionary and mandatory accounts by up to $1.2 trillion over fiscal 2013 through 2021 if committee reductions totaling $1.2 trillion were not enacted. The measure would require Congress to vote on a balanced-budget constitutional amendment by the end of 2011. It also would provide for an additional debt limit increase of $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion, subject to a resolution of disapproval.” The motion was agreed to 74-26. [CQ 8/2/11; S. 365, Vote 123, 8/2/11]
Boozman said sequestration is “actually working.” In a live radio interview with KHTE host Alice Stewart, Sen. Boozman said, “I think that you have to have some kind of a spending cap in place. You know, you can knock sequestration or not knock it, but it’s worked in the sense that hit has forced reduction in spending. And I’ve been here 11 years and this is the first time I’ve seen it in this manner, in the sense that it is something that’s actually working.” [MSNBC, 10/07/2013]
An op-ed in U.S. News and World Report on the total defense from the BCA and sequestration: “Nearly four years ago, Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which cut $487 billion from projected defense spending over the next ten years. The act also paved the way for sequestration, which would slash an additional $495 billion from the defense budget, for an overall total of almost $1 trillion in cuts.”
In 2014, a Department of Defense report found sequestration will threaten national security. More than $1 trillion in sequestration-related defense cuts, slated for now through 2021, “would significantly increase risks both in the short- and long-term,” the report found. “If sequestration-level cuts persist, our forces will assume substantial additional risks in certain missions and will continue to face significant readiness and modernization challenges,” the report said. “Overall, sequester-level cuts would result in a military that is too small to fully meet the requirements of our strategy, thereby significantly increasing national security risks both in the short- and long-term,” according to a Pentagon statement that accompanied the report’s release. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel commissioned the report to underscore the tangible impact of sequestration. [StarsAndStripes, 4/16/14]
In 2015, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said sequestration is ‘dangerous’ and ‘embarrassing.” In a October 2015 article, Military Times quoted Secretary Carter saying, “Making indiscriminate cuts is managerially inefficient and therefore … wasteful to taxpayers and industry … it’s dangerous for our strategy and frankly it’s embarrassing around the world. And it is dispiriting to our talented people and their families who deserve to know better what the future holds,” Carter said. He added that the Defense Department has done its best to manage through this prolonged period of budget uncertainty, the secretary said, making painful choices and tradeoffs among size, capabilities and readiness of the joint force. “We cannot as a nation allow this to become the new normal,” Carter said. “In today’s security environment we need to be dynamic and we need to be responsive. What we have now is a straitjacket.” [Military Times, 10/14/2015]
White House Fact Sheet on Sequestration: Military Readiness: In Arkansas, approximately 4,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $19.2 million in total. Army: Base operation funding would be cut by about $1.6 million in Arkansas. Air Force: Funding for Air Force operations in Arkansas would be cut by about $2 million. [White House, March 2013]