Dear Commons Community,

Over the past few days, the media has been abuzz with the pending nomination of Chuck Hagel, former senator and Vietnam veteran, for the position of Secretary of Defense.  Much of the discussion has been about the fact that he will be a Republican in President Obama’s administration.  Many of his Republican colleagues in the Senate are expected not to support his nomination mainly because he spoke against the Iran War and President George W. Bush’s policies while a senator.  David Brooks looks at his nomination and predicts that it is part of President Obama’s plan to make significant budget cuts.  As Brooks says:

“If a Democratic president is going to slash defense, he probably wants a Republican at the Pentagon to give him political cover, and he probably wants a decorated war hero to boot.

… The real question is, how will he begin this long cutting process? How will he balance modernizing the military and paying current personnel? How will he recalibrate American defense strategy with, say, 455,000 fewer service members?”

In addition, Brook also provides insights into the budgetary realities for the need to cut entitlement programs especially health care which he says will be most difficult because:

“Americans don’t particularly like government, but they do want government to subsidize their health care. They believe that health care spending improves their lives more than any other public good. In a Quinnipiac poll, typical of many others, Americans opposed any cuts to Medicare by a margin of 70 percent to 25 percent.

In a democracy, voters get what they want, so the line tracing federal health care spending looks like the slope of a jet taking off from LaGuardia. Medicare spending is set to nearly double over the next decade. This is the crucial element driving all federal spending over the next few decades and pushing federal debt to about 250 percent of G.D.P. in 30 years.

…As a result, health care spending, which people really appreciate, is squeezing out all other spending, which they value far less. Spending on domestic programs — for education, science, infrastructure and poverty relief — has already faced the squeeze and will take a huge hit in the years ahead. President Obama excoriated Paul Ryan for offering a budget that would cut spending on domestic programs from its historical norm of 3 or 4 percent of G.D.P. all the way back to 1.8 percent. But the Obama budget is the Ryan budget. According to the Office of Management and Budget, Obama will cut domestic discretionary spending back to 1.8 percent of G.D.P. in six years.”

Difficult times!

Tony