Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Voting for U.S.A.’s good

Thursday, March 1, 2001 | 9:11 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

GOOD LUCK, MR. PRESIDENT. Your plans to close unneeded military bases to save dollars for more important programs is right on target. The Pentagon's budget is bloated by a 23 percent excess in base capacity that cost millions of dollars to keep functioning.

Your predecessor, President Bill Clinton, and your father were able to shut down 97 major bases from 1988 to 1995. Then your Republican Party members of Congress got the majority in both houses and began to play hardball and stopped Clinton from closing down additional unneeded military bases. Let's hope you will have better luck with the GOP kooks who have done everything possible to attack Clinton programs no matter how important they are for our country.

Don't get me wrong, there are Republicans the caliber of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who have also fought for the closing of unneeded bases. In 1999, when the Senate voted 60-40 against more base closings, McCain told the Associated Press, "We should be ashamed, or a little ashamed. Find me one military expert who says we don't have to close bases." The failure to do so kept us spending an additional $2 billion to $3 billion yearly for unneeded base upkeep. Yes, even Army Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed with McCain and pointed to a $15 billion saving for the following five years. Shelton said, "Getting rid of the excesses that we have now ... would be very beneficial."

Nevada's two senators in 1999, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both Democrats, voted for the base closures. That's more than can be said for Democrat Minority Leader Tom Daschle and GOP Majority Leader Trent Lott. Both men voted against the base closures. Evidently there are some bases in South Dakota and Mississippi more important than changing our wasteful defense structure.

In 1998 then-Navy Secretary John H. Dalton, in support of base closing, wrote: "Most important, the Department of Defense is saving $5.6 billion a year from the first four rounds of base closings. An additional two rounds promise to save us another $3 billion per year. Those savings can go a long way to restoring the important balance between readiness, quality of life for men and women in uniform and modernization of the armed forces."

Mr. President, I know you are taking a close look at our military posture and spending. McCain would be a good source for you and others who are serious about defense spending. In 1998, when voting against the nonamendable spending bill, he noted that "even some of the large sums of money designated for the Pentagon use isn't for the needs of our men and women in uniform." He then added, "Instead, we bought three Gulfstream executive passenger jets, bought helicopters for the Colombian anti-drug effort, and padded the budget to pay for burying utilities at Keesler Air Force Base. We gave another $210 million of defense money to the Coast Guard to pay for its drug interdiction mission ..." The senator from Arizona believes some of the spending should be in budgets other than that of the Pentagon.

Mr. President, you haven't been around long enough for members of either political party to attack your programs out of spite. Let's hope there are enough Harry Reids and John McCains still in Washington to vote for the best interests of our nation. You are on the right track when it comes to closing expensive military bases that aren't needed.