Alleging Republican 'blind eye' on defense spending, GOP senator proposes cuts

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/15/15194879-alleging-republican-blind-eye-on-defense-spending-gop-senator-proposes-cuts?lite

By Tom Curry, NBC News national affairs writer
Nov. 15, 2012

A Senate Republican fiscal hawk offered a 74-page menu of Defense Department spending cuts Thursday that could save taxpayers nearly $68 billion over 10 years. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he and his staff had identified several categories of “non-defense spending at the Pentagon,” outlays which he said had “little to do with national security.”

At a Capitol Hill press conference, Coburn accused his fellow Senate Republicans of “having a blind eye on spending.” He summed up their approach as “It’s OK to cut spending anywhere except the Defense Department.”

But, he said “to be legitimate and have any integrity on the issue … everything has to be on the table.”

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