Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) continued to lash out at lawmakers that have suggested that the nation’s nuclear deterrent should be a target for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, suggesting that spending estimates for the nation’s nuclear activities have been greatly exaggerated. Led by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), 65 Congressmen on Oct. 11 called on the ‘super committee’ to cut $20 billion a year for the next decade from what it said was a $50 billion a year nuclear budget. “This $50 billion per year figure is incorrect—and, when coupled with the cuts proposed by the October 11 letter, deeply harmful to a fully informed and accurate debate,” Turner, the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, said in a letter to the ‘super committee’ Friday. He said the correct figure was $21.4 billion per year, and suggested that cutting $20 billion a year would “effectively amount to unilateral and immediate nuclear disarmament by the United States.” He added: “These proposed cuts would therefore have, I’m sure you’ll agree, catastrophic impacts to our national security and global stability.”
Turner noted that the Administration said it would spend $214 billion on nuclear weapons activities as part of its most recent modernization plan ($88 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program and $125.8 billion for the Department of Defense). Supporters of budget cuts have said money spent on environmental cleanup, nonproliferation efforts, and missile defense activities should also be included in the total nuclear weapons budget.