WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) – The senior U.S. House
Republican on budget matters said on Sunday he “misspoke” when
he caused a stir last week by saying the Pentagon budget for
next year was dishonest and the generals were not giving
Congress their true advice.
“I really misspoke, to be candid with you …,” congressman
Paul Ryan, chairman of the House of Representatives Budget
Committee, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“I didn’t mean to make that kind of impression,” Ryan said,
adding that he had apologized to General Martin Dempsey,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Ryan made his controversial comment in a forum last
Thursday, saying: “We don’t think the generals are giving us
their true advice. We don’t think the generals believe that
their budget is the right budget.”
Dempsey responded sharply. “There’s a difference between
having someone say they don’t believe what you said versus …
calling us collectively liars,” he said last week. “My response
is I stand by my testimony.”
Senior military officers, including Dempsey, who have
testified to Congress have endorsed Pentagon plans to cut back
on projected spending by $487 billion over the next decade as
the United States winds down wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But
they have warned against a further $500 billion in spending cuts
that could go into effect next year unless Congress takes action
to stop them.
Ryan took the view that the defense budget Democratic
President Barack Obama sent to Congress last month was driven by
spending constraints and not by a new U.S. military strategy
announced in January.
But he acknowledged that his comments last week stepped over
the line.
“Yes, I totally misspoke. It was not the impression I meant
to give. I talked to General Dempsey on it and expressed that
sentiment,” Ryan said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
“My issue is I think that the president’s budget on the
Pentagon is a budget-driven strategy, not a strategy-driven
budget,” said Ryan, a rising star in the Republican Party who
has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice.
“He announced the number of the cuts he wanted for the
Pentagon, and then he began the strategy review to conform to
that number,” Ryan continued. “We (Republicans) take $300
billion out of defense spending versus the $500 billion that the
president does in his budget. We think there are savings to be
gotten there, but I think the president’s hollowing it out.”
(Reporting by Christopher Wilson; Editing by Eric Beech)
