Budget Cuts? Rep. Turner Demands Congress Support Nuke Spending Hike

GOP Congressman Praises Obama's Spending Increases

Nuclear weapons enthusiast and subcommittee chair on “strategic arms” Rep. Mike Turner (R – OH), has warned the new Republican dominated House that in their hopes of getting the budget deficit under control they had better not touch President Obama’s calls for dramatic increases in nuclear weapons spending.

The only debate should be whether there is adequate funding,” insisted Turner, who had previously lambasted the Obama Administration for issuing a new nuclear weapons policy statement that only explicitly threatened to pre-emptively nuke Iran for “weakening the strength of our deterrent.”

Turner now appears quite enthusiastic in his support for President Obama’s wholesale increases in war spending, particularly his “modernization” scheme for America’s weapons of mass destruction.

Turner’s position will no doubt complicate already dicey efforts to curb the record military spending, and points to the real reason that each new military budget is even bigger than the last – everyone is an armchair hobbyist for some sort of devestating form of mass murder, and each has its own built-in support network.

If the Republican Congress truly wanted to get its financial House in order, the massive spending on nuclear weapons, surely the most superfluous spending conceivable, would be one of the first things on the chopping block. But its rhetorical value, and the civilization-destroying program’s long list of enthusiastic fanboys, ensures that this will never happen.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.