Levin tries to kill missile defense

Under the guise of fiscal discipline, Senate Democrats tried last week to kill national Ballistic Missile Defense by cutting off funding for some of the program's most important research projects.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D.-- Mich.), an outspoken opponent of a national missile defense system, had removed $815 million from 'vital elements of the program on a party-line vote in his committee May 9. Last week, he almost fended off a GOP attempt to restore the funding in the 2003 defense authorization bill (S. 2514)-despite a threat from President Bush that he would veto the measure if the missile-- defense money was left out.

Levin's cut, Republicans said, not only chopped more than a 10% from Bush's $7.6-billion request for missile defense, but it also gutted some of the most important elements of the missile defense program.

"The debate about missile defense is not a debate about spending-it's a debate about priorities," Sen. Phil Gramm (R.-Tex.) told HUMAN EVENTS. "The people who are against it are against it because they don't want it.... Their cut, they would argue, just cuts a fairly small part of the program. But it cuts out the parts without which none of the rest of it makes any sense. It's like a guy who takes the ignition out of a car, and says, `Well, you've got 98% of your car.'"

Levin, who has repeatedly asserted that a missile shield will precipitate a new arms race with Russia or China, denied that he was trying to kill missile defense. The $815 million, he told HUMAN EVE, "is money which, after a very thorough analysis, was determined to be redundant and not needed this year. . . . Everybody here supports proceeding with the missile defense program, but there's no use putting money there that can't be properly spent when we've got a war on terrorism to win."

Without Leaving Fingerprints

But defense and legislative experts told HUMAN EvENTs that the system is meant to be redundant, allowing for three separate chances to down enemy missiles. Levin's opposition to funding what is believed to be the most effective stage of missile defense-the interception of enemy missiles shortly after lift-off-led Senate Republicans to accuse him of trying to kill the program slowly without leaving fingerprints.

"We cannot be in a position to be blackmailed by China, North Korea, or any other rogue state," said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R.-Iowa), referring to those nations' increasing missile capabilities. "I think Sen. Levin is living in a Cold War environment. He needs to get into the 21st Century."

On June 25, Levin lined up his Democratic colleagues to vote against a GOP attempt to restore full funding for missile defense on the Senate floor.

That vote never took place, to the relief of some vulnerable Senate Democrats facing re-election this year. Nonetheless, GOP Senate sources tell HUMAN EVENTS that by the time the rollcall was expected to take place, Levin had successfully arm-twisted nearly every moderate Senate Democrat-including Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mary Landrieu (La.), and Max Cleland (Ga.)-to vote against restoring funding for crucial parts of the program. Landrieu, who claims to support missile defense, nevertheless gave a 20minute speech in support of Levin's cuts on June 25.

Both sides heavily anticipated a near tie vote. If Republican Senators Lincoln Chafee (R.I.).and George Voinovich (Ohio), as expected, voted against the missile defense funding, and Democrats Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), Fritz Hollings (S.C.) and Zell Miller (Ga.) defected and voted for it, the vote would have been 49 to 50 against. To stave off defeat, Republicans secretly brought Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.)still recovering from major heart surgery-to the Hill, planning, if necessary, to wheel him out onto the Senate at the last minute to cast the crucial 50th vote. But Democrats got wind of Helms' arrival, and put off the missile defense vote until the next day.

On June 26, Levin, loathe to expose vulnerable Democrats to a losing vote on missile defense, and the Republicans, unsure they could win a rollcall vote, decided to agree on a compromise. Instead of earmarking missile defense dollars, Republicans let Levin insert language that gives President Bush discretion on how to spend the money and passed the funding on a voice vote.

Even with the insertion, Senate GOP aides still worried about the fate of the money because of possible tricks in the upcoming House-Senate conference on the bill. They also recognized that Levin's leaving the money at Bush's discretion leaves the door open for politicization of its use later on.

"Levin is trying to say, `The President says missile defense is more important than homeland security,"' a GOP legislative aide told HUMAN EVENTS. "He's trying to embarrass the President."

Heritage Foundation defense expert Baker Spring explained that Levin's cuts would have gone to the very heart of the missile defense program. "What he wants to do is make, in my judgement, prejudicial decisions regarding the particular technological approaches to missile defense," he said.