Budget & Spending OKLAHOMA & NATIONAL SECURITY BUDGET
Oklahoma has already felt the effects of budget cuts to our national security under sequestration while social programs have received less of the cuts. In 2012, the Air Force cut 1,131 military and civilian personnel in Oklahoma. In 2013, Oklahoma lost 600 positions at Tinker in the 3rd Combat Herd, 200 Boeing jobs, 3 KC-135s in Altus, and the delay of the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program. National security should not be on the chopping block so Senator Inhofe has worked to cut government spending with common sense solutions to the nation’s budget problems. In 2012, he introduced S. 3473 to protect our national security and pay for it all with smart reforms to mandatory entitlement programs and cuts to non-defense discretionary spending. Here’s how it works:
In 2011, Senator Inhofe voted against the Budget Control Act (BCA) because it raised the debt ceiling by another $2.1 trillion. Part of the debt ceiling increase included a steep cut to our national security of roughly $500 billion, bringing the total of budget cuts to defense to $1.2 trillion under the Obama Administration. Senator Inhofe has long been concerned that these cuts will result in the U.S. having the smallest ground forces since 1940, the smallest fleet of ships since 1915, and the smallest tactical fighter force in the history of the Air Force. Repeals Obamacare and Block Grant Medicaid ...... Saving $1.1 tril Cuts non-defense discretionary spending to FY’06 levels . Saving $952 bil Block Grant the Food Stamp Program ..... Saving $285 bil Shrinks the Federal Workforce through Attrition .... Saving $144 bil Repeals all future climate change spending ..... Saving $83 bil Enacts Comprehensive Medical Malpractice Reform ..... Saving $74 bil
In 2013, Senator Inhofe introduced S.16 and S.799 with Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to provide the DoD and other agencies the ability to prioritize the programs within respective agencies that require cuts under the BCA. This method would allow the DoD to make cuts to lower priority programs instead of implementing the across-the-board cuts required under the BCA that are threatening our national security. On Feb. 28, 2013, Senator Inhofe’s bill, S.16, was presented as the Republican alternative to sequestration and received a vote in the Senate. Despite receiving bipartisan support, the bill ultimately failed passage due to a veto threat from President Obama. “It’s clear the President is concerned about the bill Sen. Toomey and I have introduced, because he knows this is the bipartisan solution that places the onus on him to mitigate the devastating impacts of sequestration cuts he set into motion this year...On Feb. 19th, the President said sequestration doesn’t ‘consider whether we’re cutting some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness, or a vital service that Americans depend on every single day. It doesn’t make those distinctions.’ Our bill gives him the ability to work with Congress to make those distinctions to address bloated programs, yet now he wants to veto it. This veto threat simply continues the sad and broken narrative of President Obama that the only way to protect our national security and critical federal services is by asking hardworking Americans to pay more taxes. But sequestration is not about taxes. Sequestration is a law solely focused on cutting federal spending, and that must be the focus of this debate.” – Senator Jim Inhofe, Feb. 28, 2013
In 2012, Senator Inhofe introduced S. 3602, the Food Stamp Restoration Act. Since 2008, spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increased by 100 percent. In 2008, the program cost taxpayers $37 billion and 28 million people were enrolled. This year, food stamps will cost $80 billion and a record 46.7 million people are on the program. This legislation would cut $300 billion over ten years simply by taking the program back to the coverage levels of 2005, with benefits adjusted upward for inflation. Senator Inhofe offered this bill as an amendment to the farm bill in 2013 as S. Amendment 960 which unfortunately failed by a vote of 36-60 on May 22, 2013. www.inhofe.senate.gov Inhofe Annual Report | 2012-2013
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