Defense Budgets Message to the Congress on the Fiscal Year 1980 and 1981 Budgets.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am sure you agree with me that we cannot effectively safeguard U.S. legitimate interests abroad nor pursue safely peace, justice and order at home unless our national security is protected by adequate defenses. The fundamental responsibility of the President—a responsibility shared with Congress—is to maintain defenses adequate to provide for the national security of the United States. In meeting that responsibility, this Administration moved promptly and vigorously to reverse the downward trend in U.S. defense efforts. This is demonstrated by an examination of the trends in real defense expenditures since the mid 1960s. At NATO Summits in May 1977 and 1978 we persuaded our allies to join with us in endorsing a goal three percent real annual growth in defense outlays and an ambitious Long Term Defense Program for the Alliance. Together these represented a turning point, not only for the United States, but the whole Alliance.

For our part, we moved promptly to act on this resolve. We authorized production of XM-1 tanks; we greatly increased the number of anti-tank guided missiles; we deployed F-15s and additional F-111s to Europe, along with equipment for additional ground forces. We reduced the backlog of ships in overhaul and settled contractual disputes that threatened to halt shipbuilding progress. In strategic systems, we accelerated development and began procurement of long range airlaunched cruise missiles, began the deployment of Trident I missiles, and have begun the modernization of our ICBM force with the commitment to deploy the MX missile in a survivable basing mode for it.

These and other initiatives were the building blocks for a determined program to assure that the United States remains militarily strong. The FY 1980 budget submission of last January was designed to continue that program. In subsequent months, however, inflation has run at higher levels than those assumed in the cost calculations associated with that defense program. Accordingly, I plan to send promptly to the Congress a defense budget amendment to restore enough funds to continue in FY 1980 to carry out the Administration's defense program based on our current best estimate of the inflation that will be experienced during the fiscal year. Although the detailed calculations needed to prepare an amendment are still in progress, I expect that the amount of the amendment will be about $2.7 billion in Budget Authority above the Administration's January 1979 budget request.

Correcting for inflation is not enough in itself to assure that we continue an adequate defense program through FY 1980. We must also have the program and the funds authorized and appropriated, substantially as they were submitted. Therefore, in the course of Congressional consideration of the second budget resolution, I will support ceilings for the National Defense Function for FY 1980 of $141.2 billion in Budget Authority and $130.6 billion in outlays. I will also request that the Congress support the Administration's FY 1980 defense program and, in particular, that the Appropriation Committees actually appropriate the funds needed to carry it out.

Furthermore, in FY 1981 I plan a further real increase in defense spending. The Defense Department is working on the details of that budget. It would, therefore, be premature to describe the features of that budget beyond noting that it will continue the broad thrust of our defense program, and that I intend to continue to support our mutual commitment with our NATO Allies.

While this defense program is adequate, it is clear that we could spend even more and thereby gain more military capability. But national security involves more than sheer military capability; there are other legitimate demands on our budget resources. These competing priorities will always be with us within the vast array of budget decisions both the Congress and the President are called upon to make. Defense outlays are actually lower in constant dollars than they were in 1963, and a much lower percentage of the gross national product (5% compared with 9%). There are those that think this has caused a decline in American military might and that the military balance has now tipped against us. I do not believe this to be so, but I am concerned about the trends. I believe that it is necessary for us to act now to reverse these trends.

The Secretary of Defense will be presenting to the Congress over the coming months the highlights of our defense program in terms of the goals we think we should achieve and the Five-Year Defense Program we plan to achieve them. In this context he will point out, among many other items, how MX and our other strategic programs will contribute to the maintenance of essential equivalence between the central strategic forces of the United States and Soviet Union, how we plan to modernize theater nuclear forces in cooperation with our NATO allies, how our general purpose forces programs contribute both to our military capability to support our NATO allies and rapidly to deploy forces to defend our vital interests elsewhere. That presentation can serve as the basis for future discussions (including open testimony) that will allow us to build the national consensus that is the fundamental prerequisite of a strong and secure America.

JIMMY CARTER

The White House,

September 11, 1979.