Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R) spoke on the House floor this week, expressing that cutting defense funding would prove to be the height of irresponsibility.
Taking into account the rising tensions with other countries, Waltz elaborated on his ideas concerning the effects of large military spending cuts with the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act and how that would affect the global stability.
Having voted no earlier in the year, Waltz shared that “this cut… is an attempt to back us out of the War on Terror.”
He added that “we all want peace,” we all want these wars to go away but that doesn’t mean that we can just wish them away… like the Obama administration tried to do in Iraq.”
Waltz explained that “the reality is we can either fight these wars in places like Kabul, Kandahar, Damascus and Baghdad or… the extremism problem will follow us home to places like San Bernardino, Orlando, New York and others.”
Moreover, the freshman Florida Rep. also commented on an amendment to reduce the Overseas Contingency Operations account by $17 billion.
Specifically, the OCO funds war efforts that are ongoing in countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Waltz detailed that “it is irresponsible in the midst of a war to tie the Pentagon’s hands by cutting these funds while we have Special Operators as we speak today in 72 countries.”
As well, he noted that “we can have this debate over where we should be and how our service members should be deployed – but to cut our funds in the middle of the War on Terror and try to back us out of these wars because you disagree with them is the height of irresponsibility.”
Finally, Waltz asserted that “we have a moral obligation to our servicemembers overseas.”
