The Fudge Masters Go to War

President Bush’s new Pentagon budget may serve him well enough in the political infighting on Capitol Hill, but it does not match today’s combat requirements in the rest of the world.

That’s too bad. Only by sheer luck is a yearlong shouting match between Congress and the White House likely to produce a budget that starts the country toward a military strategy and structure tailored for real threats to national security that are likely to occur in a rapidly changing world.

White House officials have been predicting deep cuts in the Pentagon budget, but the final version would be just 2.6% less than the last one. Obviously unwilling to gamble that he can guess the direction reforms in the Soviet Union and upheavals in Eastern Europe may take, the President is telling Congress to have a go at it.

To add spice to the challenge, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has marked 35 domestic military bases for closure. That part of the budget has already left a welt, with Rep. Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, charging that the White House plans to trade bases for defense votes and insisting on another bipartisan commission similar to the one that chose the last bases to be shut down.

Cheney is to appear before the Aspin committee Thursday, when he may say the same thing he told reporters Tuesday--that the Pentagon is still analyzing force requirements and would revise its budget if its assessment of the threat changes.

Cheney may simply be trying to avoid being frozen out of the process while Congress whacks away at the budget. It is also possible that the Pentagon is having second thoughts about its request for more than $5 billion for a “Star Wars” program. In fact, “Star Wars”-type research could provide useful information at spending levels less than half that high.

What Aspin is likely to say Thursday is more predictable. He argues that the White House has produced a budget without a strategic concept and he wants production of new weapons put on hold. As a hedge against major change in the Soviet Union, Aspin would concentrate on research and development of weapons, with the blueprints put on the shelf unless and until they are needed.

The nation may get lucky; the coming verbal battles over defense just might be productive. But it would be better off if Congress and the White House had marched off in the same direction and argued about the details along the way.