Aspin Hits Bush’s ‘Old Thinking’ on Pentagon Budget

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee accused the Bush Administration today of “old thinking” to justify building two new long-range nuclear missile systems that may no longer be required.

Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.) said the pro-democracy movements in Eastern Europe and Moscow are changing U.S. defense requirements, but the Administration is proposing a 1991 defense budget that does not reflect a reduced Soviet military threat.

“There are new realities in the world, but no new thinking at home to match them,” Aspin told Defense Secretary Dick Cheney at the outset of a hearing on the Administration’s proposed $292-billion defense budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, defended the budget proposal and argued that no major cuts in spending or changes in defense strategy should be considered until new U.S.-Soviet arms control agreements are concluded.