Is Buck McKeon (R-CA) A Big Spender Or Just Off Message?

This quote from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) stands out in an excellent story in yesterday’s The Washington Post by Scott Wilson and Greg Jaffe on how the White House worked with the Pentagon on the military spending strategy Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced last week:

“an honest and valid strategy for national defense can’t be founded on the premise that we must do more with less or less with less.”

Yes, I know this is just the chairman of an authorization committee defending his jurisdiction. And, yes, I know that McKeon is from a state that relies heavily on federal military spending.

But “do more with less” and a smaller government supposedly are basic principles of the GOP these days. What is McKeon saying?

1. The Pentagon budget can never be reduced?
2. Efficiencies in the military aren’t possible?
3. The amount we spend on defending the country shouldn’t be related to the need?
4. The GOP leadership is wrong when it demands doing more with less?
5. The polls that consistently show Americans want the government to spend less in many areas of the budget but especially at the Pentagon are incorrect?
6. If we can’t do more with less or less with less, are we supposed to do less with more?
7. Federal spending, no matter what it’s for and regardless of whether it’s needed, is a good thing?

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