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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pentagon Defends Budget's Defense Spending Increase Request

Aired February 05, 2002 - 05:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Details on President Bush's budget proposal have now been released. As expected, the Pentagon is getting a lot of attention in that plan. Folks there say it's the price of freedom.

Our Jamie McIntyre has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Pentagon says its record high spending plan is needed to make up for years of neglect and to transform the U.S. military into a high-tech force capable of defeating terrorists wherever they hide. The Bush administration is asking Congress to approve $379 billion for defense, an increase of 48 billion. The Pentagon argues it needs every penny.

DONALD RUMFSELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: If one thinks about the economic loss that took place on September 11 in this country and elsewhere in the world, in billions and billions of dollars, it is very clear that the defense budget is cheap, when one compares it to putting our security at risk, our lives at risk, our country at risk, our freedoms at risk.

MCINTYRE: While the budget is being sold as funding for the war on terrorism, the bulk of the money goes for traditional weapons and forces. But some programs are being counted as transformational, such as $1.1 billion for more unmanned spy planes, 1.3 billion more for more precision-guided bombs and another 1 billion to arm four older ballistic submarines with cruise missiles.

Controversial programs, like the Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter, the Marine Corps' B-22 tilt rotor aircraft and the Army's Crusader Howitzer all survived. But the Navy's next-generation destroyer was scrapped, as was one of its ship-launched missile defense programs. Some Democrats in Congress say Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is avoiding the tough decisions he promised to make, when he came to the Pentagon last year.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I support the war. I support our troops. I support better housing and better pay for our troops. But I do not support an increasingly bloated Pentagon bureaucracy.

MCINTYRE (on camera): Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself declared war on the Pentagon's bureaucracy the day before the September 11 attacks. Still, he rejects any charge that the Pentagon is incapable of change, citing as an example the way the U.S. military, adept at its tactics, to fight an unconventional war in Afghanistan.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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