Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, perhaps articulating a new argument against spending cuts from President Obama’s officials, repeated Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius’s claim health care is a national security issue and added that education is a national security issue, as well.
“National security is not just dependent on military power,” Panetta said last night during an event at the Saban Center on Middle East Policy. “It’s also dependent, [among other things], on the quality of life in this country – to educate our kids, to provide health care. All of that is part of our national security. And it’s for that reason that I think it’s essential that the leadership of the country find the solutions to dealing with the deficit without having America have to pay a price that it will regret in the future.”
Panetta’s comment echoed and expanded on Seblius’ contention that health “really is an issue of national security.” If health insurance spending, and education spending, and defense spending, are all matters of national security that the United States should beware of cutting — but we all agree on the need for deficit reduction — that would leave tax increases as almost the only remaining option.
Of course, Obama and congressional Democrats are quite fixated on the need for tax increases (although Panetta did not specifically call for them).
Panetta derisively compared members of Congress to the United States military. “If I had men and women who were putting their lives on the line, who were fighting and dying for this country in battle and they had the courage to do that, then surely our elected leaders on Capitol Hill ought to be able to find just a little bit of courage to find the solutions to help solve the problems in this country,” he said.
