September 28, 2011

Support of defense spending reduction is gaining momentum on the Hill and in one of the country’s most prominent newspapers. Less than a week after Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) circulated a letter urging $200 billion in nuclear weapons spending cuts over the next ten years, a bipartisan group of six representatives is calling for the Super Committee to curb spending on defense programs by billions of dollars.

Barbara Lee (D-CA) is joined by three Democrats–Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and Rush Holt of New Jersey–and two Republicans–John Campbell of California and Ron Paul of Texas–in a letter that will circulate on the Hill until Fridays, seeking support and signatures.

The letter comes on the heels of Monday’s excellent New York Times editorial, which calls for reassessing a defense budget, “ill suited to America’s 21st-century military needs.”