Lindsey Graham speaks about defense spending in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 2, 2012. (Getty Images)
By RAJU CHEBIUM
Gannett Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lindsey Graham joined four GOP colleagues Thursday in introducing legislation to block $110 billion in military spending cuts next year, saying the reductions would devastate national security.
Graham teamed up with Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire to propose avoiding the defense cuts by instead cutting $110 billion through attrition in the 2.3-million federal workforce and freezing salaries for federal employees and members of Congress.
"In a budget this big ... we can find enough money to avoid decimating the Department of Defense," Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at Capitol Hill press conference. "There will be bipartisan support to replace the defense... cuts with other cuts."
To cut the federal debt, Graham and McCain said they're willing to consider a second round of military base closures -- the first was in the 1990s -- though Ayotte expressed opposition.
Graham urged President Barack Obama to work with congressional lawmakers to find a way to avoid cutting the military by more than $1 trillion over a decade, under spending cuts set to take effect automatically because a congressional "super committee" failed to recommend ways to cut the nation's debt last year.
The impact on the Pentagon won't be as severe as Graham says, according to Lawrence Korb, an analyst at the liberal Center for American Progress.
Future military savings will be achieved by holding the line on defense spending for the next decade and trimming -- not gutting -- a range of programs, said Korb, assistant defense secretary under President Ronald Reagan.
The U.S. will remain the world's only superpower, he said, even after shrinking the Pentagon by $1 trillion.
"You'd be back to where you were in 2007," Korb said. "I don't remember anybody saying (the military) was too small then. And you'd still be a good 30 percent higher... than you were before 9/11."'
Under a congressionally approved deal last summer, the military would be slashed by $487 billion over the next 10 years as part of a broader plan to reduce the deficit.
Last month, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta released the outlines of a new military strategy prompted by those spending cuts. Specifics won't be available until the White House releases its fiscal 2013 spending request on Feb. 13.
Broadly speaking, the Obama administration plans to shrink the size of the Army and the Marine Corps, do less nation-building, and emphasize special operations forces. The military will pay closer attention to China, maintain its presence in the Middle East and reduce its footprint in Europe.