jon: this has to be approved by congress. do you think the mood is there in congress? you told the pentagon they have to, they have to cut their budget by what, $487 billion over 10 years? and the sequestration which would be another 5, 600 billion. jon: that is trillion all together if that happens. over a trillion. and i just think it is just asking too much of the defense department. we understand that everything has to be on the table. people spoke loud and clear i think during the last election but, again, to take such a big part of the savings out of defense, those who have, you know, they lay their life on the line for us every day. we have troops over there in afghanistan as we speak that probably go outside the wire today on patrols. they should not have to be thinking about the increase in their health care costs or their retirement or what is going to happen to their families. they should be able to concentrate on their missions. we shouldn t be putting them through this
that there s going to be $487 billion of savings out of defense over the next ten years, which the president s budget just called for if there was no budget plan, no budget outline, no road map for savings? we do know that there s going to have to be that amount of savings because of the budget control act. so our friends have convenient amnesia. it s good talking points. but the fact is we have a budget in place for this year and next. we have ten years of spending caps, and a special committee was given the opportunity to deal with entitlements and revenue without a threat of filibuster. unfortunately, they failed. but nonetheless, they were given that opportunity just as they would be in a budget resolution. senator, we ve got mark haleprin with us this morning and he s got a question. it s all very complicated. but let me focus on one piece of it. you re right, you did turn it over to the special committee to try to address it. they didn t.
can understand this type of budget being put forward. if you look at greece which a lot of us are. some people would say it s apples and oranges but it took decades to get to the place where greece is. pentagon something forward is a statement of priority, did putting forward something is statement of priority. if you want to cut spending in certain places like defense, make the case for it but if it s an exercise in futility, if you know the congress isn t going to do anything with it. if the senate democrats aren t going to put forward the president s budget, you don t know what the president s priorities are. it seems the one area willing to cut is in defense. in addition to the $487 billion in defense cuts we re going see over the next ten years, we learned just this evening that the president is now in fact
you weren t going to save anyway instead of cutting real programs? chris, i don t agree with that. i think that the policy to get out of iraq, to reduce and eliminate our military presence there was very real. i think that if we don t lower the caps that permit that spending there will be a natural process of seeing military spending grow. we have $487 billion of savings in the defense department over in the security area over the ten year period. closing down this backdoor is part of making sure we get those savings. it is very real. i guarantee you that if we don t take the action that has been proposed there will be leakage and that money will end up he getting spent. if there is going to be discipline in the budget you to lower the amount spent in that area. chris: in 2009 president obama one month after he took office made a promise. let s take a look. today i m pledging to cut
percentage of gdp. the gougette counts as savings hundreds of billions of dollars from ending the wars in iraq and afghanistan. republicans say that is money that we wouldn t have cement any way. white house chief of staff jack lu who was the budget director when the spending plan was put together disagrees. we have $487 billion of savings in the defense department, in the security area over this ten-year period. closing down this back door is part of making sure we get those savings. it s very real. i guarantee you that if we don t take the action that s been proposed there will be leakage and that money will end up getting spent. reporter: the president wants to use some of that money saved from ending the wars in iraq and afghanistan on infrastructure projects to create jobs. jenna: what ben titl what about entitlements. reporter: both democrats and republicans realize you have to reduce the growth and spending