Table Talk

Defense cuts are "absolutely" on the table, Eric Cantor (R-VA), the House majority leader, said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.

"I've said before, no one can defend the expenditure of every dollar and cent over at the Pentagon." he said. "And we've got to be very serious to make sure that they are doing more with less as well."

This week, the House will have a vote on the floor directing its appropriations committees "to go about deliberating on where those cuts are" for defense and other areas, Cantor noted. Across the government, there are hundreds of programs that will have to be cut, he added.

On CBS' Face the Nation, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused Republicans of seeking to avoid defense cuts despite the huge the deficit. "But for instance, they leave the military totally out," he said. "Now, I'm for a strong military, and I've always supported it. But everyone knows there's waste and inefficiency in the military budget. Defense Secretary Gates has proposed cutting $150 billion out of it. And if you want to be fair, if you want to convince people that you're really for cutting, you have to cut the waste across the board."

Meanwhile, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State Colin Powell said on CNN that defense cuts should be considered. "Yeah. I think we have to look at everything, both domestic and our international accounts. As we draw down from Iraq and as, over the next several years, we draw down from Afghanistan, I see no reason why the military shouldn't be looked at," Powell said.

"When the Cold War ended 20 years ago, when I was chairman and Mr. Cheney was secretary of defense, we cut the defense budget by 25 percent, and we reduced the force by 500,000 active duty soldiers," Powell added. "So it can be done. Now, how fast you can do it and what you have to cut out remains to be seen. But I don't think the defense budget can be made, you know, sacrosanct and it can't be touched." But the "real money" is in the entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he said. "And unless we do something about those, you can't balance the budget."

Such cuts are tough to make politically, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said on ABC’s This Week: "The American people say don't touch Social Security, don't touch Medicare, don't cut defense. That's 84 percent of the federal budget. . . . So, you know, there needs to be leadership to help the American people understand how serious this problem is and that it's going to take a lot more than cutting foreign aid and taxing the rich. You're not going to solve the problem that way."

Asked about rumors he might be tapped to succeed Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Powell told CNN: "But the administration knows that I'm quite content with the work I'm doing now with young people, with education and a variety of other interests that I have. . . . I'm not anxious to be offered a government job and I'm not interested in a government job."