WASHINGTON -President Clinton yesterday proposed the biggest increase in military spending since the Reagan era, partly in an effort to show he isn’t obsessing about his upcoming impeachment trial.
White House officials also announced a big boost in spending on food safety.
Spending announcements should show the public that Clinton is focusing on issues, such as rebuilding the Defense Department, and isn’t concentrating only on keeping his job, said a White House official who did not want to be named.
The administration official said Clinton would announce various other aspects of his budget in piecemeal fashion as well, possibly during a Senate trial. Clinton will present the entire budget to Congress in a month.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy confirmed the administration’s more low-key approach to Clinton’s defense in the Senate than in the House.
Clinton proposed increasing the military budget by $12 billion next year, and by $100 billion over six years. That would amount to the biggest increase since the Reagan military buildup in the early- and mid-1980s.
Clinton’s proposal, which he announced yesterday in his weekly radio address, would mark the first military-spending increase since the Persian Gulf War in 1991 – and the request comes just two weeks after Clinton waged a four-day campaign of airstrikes against Iraq.
The Republican-led Congress is likely to welcome an increase in Pentagon spending, although some Republicans are likely to push for an even greater increase.
During a debate last month on a resolution to support the U.S. troops in the Middle East, several GOP members of Congress suggested that Clinton and congressional Democrats should back up their words of support for the military with money to modernize the troops.
Clinton said he wants the extra $12 billion to pay for joint military exercises, flight training, spare parts, recruiting, and to buy the “next generation” of ships, planes and weapons.
The budget proposal also would include a 4.4 percent pay raise for military personnel, the largest increase since 1982, during Ronald Reagan’s huge military buildup in the Cold War.
“We must undertake this effort today so that our nation will remain strong and secure tomorrow,” Clinton said.
White House officials said Clinton’s budget also will seek a 12 percent, $105 million increase in food-safety programs.
The money would upgrade Agriculture Department inspections at small meat- and poultry-processing plants, pay for 60 additional inspectors in the Food and Drug Administration, and improve labs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that track cases of food poisoning.
The budget leaks appear to be part of a “high-ground” strategy of public relations designed to combat the unwanted news that will come with a Senate trial.
Last month, the House impeached Clinton on charges he lied under oath and obstructed justice to hide his affair with ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The White House waged an in-your-face battle against Sexgate prober Kenneth Starr and the House Republicans preceding the impeachment vote. But Senate Democrats have warned Clinton not to meddle with the Senate before or during a trial.
Instead of battling Senate Republicans, officials said, the White House plans to use budget stories and the State of the Union address on January 19 to show that Clinton is still in charge, that he plans to stay in office until his term ends, and that he’s not obsessed only with surviving a year-old, sex-and-lies scandal.