The US military will face budget cuts as lawmakers hunt for savings to rein in the country’s deficit and national debt, senior US Republican Representative Eric Cantor said Tuesday.
“Everything is going to be on the table,” Cantor, set to become House Majority Leader on Wednesday, told reporters. “Everybody is going to have to do more with less.”
Republicans, who retook the House and sliced deep into the Democratic Senate majority in November 2 elections, have vowed to cut non-defense, discretionary spending to 2008 levels in a bid to save about 100 billion dollars.
Cantor indicated that the US military, embroiled in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, would not be cut as deeply, stressing “this is going to be a majority about national security” and brushing off a question about whether the Pentagon would also be restricted to 2008 levels.
Senior Republicans have also vowed a region-by-region, country-by-country, program-by-program review of US diplomatic and aid programs with an eye on making spending cuts.
