Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has placed a $41 billion bet that Congress will ease off on the mandatory spending cuts in the sequester process and also go along with a White House proposal to raise taxes.
“We will be working hard to convince Congress that there’s too much risk” to the Air Force and the nation if the $41 billion in additional funding is rejected, James said last week at a defense issues forum.
In offering the Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget plan last week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also put forward a five-year projection calling on Congress to boost military spending by $115 billion through sequester relief.
Hagel is counting on an additional $26 billion for defense from the total $56 billion Growth and Opportunity Fund that President Obama plans to outline Tuesday in the White House budget plan.
The $56 billion for the Fund would come from a combination of tax increases and offset spending, White House officials.
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