The incoming head of the House Armed Services Committee has vowed to expose all of Donald Trump’s lies. Even before he takes over this important committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), has given the president a taste of what difficulties he will face with a new Democratic majority starting January 3rd.
According to Smith,
“Constant misinformation from the president is a real problem in a democratic society, and we in Congress have got to do our best to hold him accountable.”
A few weeks ago Smith promised that under his leadership the committee would no longer allow Trump’s falsehoods to go unchallenged. The military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported.
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“Smith was reacting to a tally of inaccurate claims by President Donald Trump, in speeches or tweets, on issues military people and veterans care about, such as the size of pay raises, the purpose of border deployments, assertions of readiness in disarray before he became president, and his premature claims of expanded health care choices for veterans who rely on the VA medical system.”
“The latest occurred during Trump’s visit with U.S. troops in Iraq on Dec. 26, when he said again, as he did in May, that “the big pay raise you just got” — 2.4 percent in January, a 2.6 percent increase to take effect next month — was the first raise in “more than 10 years,” according to a White House transcript.”
“Trump added, falsely, that the military raise was 10 percent.”
Smith also has stated publicly that he and his committee will strongly oppose Trump’s plan to create a new “Space Force” which he believes is misguided, unnecessary and a waste of money.
In addition, Smith said that in his view it was not necessary to continually increase the bloated budget of the U.S. military by 5 percent every year, which Trump and other Republicans have demanded.
As for Mexican border security, Smith said Trump doesn’t understand the issue. Over the past 12 years, the border security budget has quintupled, resulting in “a significant decline in unlawful border crossings,” Smith said.
Smith has promised that as he holds the purse strings to military appropriations in the U.S. budget, he will hold the Defense Department accountable for the hundreds of billions of dollars that they spend every year.
He pointed out that under Trump and a GOP House the nation’s total debt has also skyrocketed to $22 trillion and will soon be increasing by $1 trillion each year. Interest on that debt will surpass the size of the defense budget this fiscal year. According to Smith, he will not be able to ignore these numbers.
The debt “hangs over everything,” he said.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
