Mulvaney says he backs Trump's call for more defense spending

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) told the Senate Budget Committee this morning that he supports President Donald Trump's call for increased defense spending.

Mulvaney, testifying before the committee as Trump's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, told Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) that he understands how high personnel costs impact the Pentagon's budget and that he would work on reforming those personnel policies if he is confirmed. 

Prior to Mulvaney's testimony, two prominent GOP defense hawks vouched for him, despite behind-the-scenes concerns voiced by some Republicans that he will not support a significant increase in defense spending.

Graham told the committee that Mulvaney, a famous deficit hawk and Tea Party advocate, would support President Trump's promise to increase defense spending.

"He will follow the call of the president to increase defense spending," Graham said. "I've never had an occasion where he would not tell me exactly what he believed even if I disagreed with it."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who is pushing a plan to increase fiscal year 2017 defense spending by $26 billion, also spoke in support of Mulvaney

"The director's chief job is to give the president the unvarnished truth," Cotton said. "He has to tell the president exactly what things cost. For the last six years, Mick has been telling many hard truths. Mick will treat every taxpayer dollar as if it were his own."

In his written statement, Mulvaney told the committee, "Our gross national debt has increased to almost $20 trillion. That number is so large as to defy description. I choose to look at it another way: To an ordinary American family, that translates to a credit card bill of $260,000. Families know what that would mean for them. It is time for government to learn the same lesson."

UPDATE 11:45 a.m.: When asked if the Pentagon's current use of its Overseas Contingency Operations account was "dishonest," Mulvaney agreed.

Mulvaney is a longtime critic of OCO, which he has called a "slush fund."

A panel of analysts, however, who recently met at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the OCO account remained the only way to truly grow the defense budget because it is exempt from the spending caps mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

"It's not emergency spending," Mulvaney said in response to further questioning.

When asked if he would seek to reform the process, Mulvaney said: "I will look forward to having an opportunity to explain to the president why it's not a good way to spend American taxpayer dollars."