Congressman Markey calls for cuts to wasteful nuclear arsenal programs to help reduce deficit, protect national security

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With defense and budget leaders poised to seek cuts in America’s bloated nuclear weapons budget, Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement refuting Chairman Mike Turner’s (R-Ohio) undercounting of the costs associated with building, operating and maintaining the nation’s nuclear arsenal.    
 
“Rep. Turner’s assessment of the nuclear weapons program makes Enron’s accounting look like Nobel Prizing-winning mathematics. His figures exclude hundreds of billions in spending over the next decade on missile defense, nuclear threat reduction and environmental remediation from previous nuclear weapons production, all of which are massive costs associated with the nuclear weapons program. According to projections using past spending and the best publicly available information, Rep. Turner also is grossly underestimating the cost of procuring, upgrading, operating, and maintaining nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. This patently false undercount does nothing to help tackle the kind of cuts needed to reduce our deficit.
 
“If Congressman Turner really wants to focus on math, he can begin by subtracting from the waste in America’s bloated nuclear weapons budget.
 
“Instead of having a real debate about what weapons America really needs in the 21st century, Congressman Turner is wasting time questioning estimates of how much the gold-plated nuclear weapons complex is costing our country. Defense and budget leaders alike agree that the nuclear weapons budget needs to be a target for budget cuts or our federal debt will continue to be the greatest national security threat America faces.
 
“We can no longer afford to pour money into wasteful nuclear weapons programs that are artifacts of outdated, Cold War fears. We need to make our nuclear weapons forces the right size for our 21st century security needs. America’s nuclear arsenal budget is filled with waste and can be cut significantly without harming our national security. It is time to stop funding a nuclear weapons budget that threatens to undermine our long-term economic security.”
 
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