
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990                   TAG: 9006130532
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHENEY PREDICTS DEEP MILITARY CUTS IF BUDGET PLAN IS ADOPTED

Significant cuts in President Bush's 1991 defense budget could force him to discharge more than 100,000 military personnel than already planned, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney says.

Facing growing congressional opposition to Bush's $303.3 billion defense spending plan, Cheney told a Senate panel Tuesday that proposed reductions of more than $8 billion would cause "great violence to our most important military asset - our men and women."

He estimated that if Congress adopts budget totals passed by the House on May 1, he would be forced to discharge 140,000 of the 2.1 million men and women now in uniform, about 103,000 more than in the current defense plan.

"The only place we can get those kinds of savings quickly in fiscal 1991 is our manpower," Cheney said. "There's no other place to go. We'd have to run a lot of people off, throw people on the street, freeze promotions."

White House officials and members of Congress are negotiating an overall budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 that would determine the amount of money for defense.

The House approved a $1.2 trillion budget that earmarks $295.5 billion for defense - $8.3 billion less than Bush has proposed. The Senate Budget Committee has approved a plan to cut his request by $9.4 billion.

Cheney promised negotiators last week that by Thursday he would submit armed forces personnel projections for the next five years if defense spending is cut by 25 percent.

The Pentagon chief provided a hint of the impact on Tuesday in testimony before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense.

Cheney said a 25 percent cut would result in a reduction of five to six Army divisions and five to six wings from the Air Force.

During the hearing, senators challenged Cheney's plan to buy 75 B-2 stealth bombers, which according to latest estimates could cost $860 million each.

"My view is that we probably ought to scrap the B-2 or just buy the B-2s in production," said Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office said that based on its inflation assumptions, the overall B-2 program of 75 planes would cost $64.9 billion - more than Cheney's estimate of $61.1 billion and the Air Force's recent total of about $62 billion.

by CNB