Carter Is Backing 3% Defense Rise Despite SALT II: Carter Is Backing 3% Defense Rise Despit
The Carter administration intends to stick with its goal of a 3 percent after-inflation increase in defense spending rather than acceding to new demands for higher amounts.</br></br>Several senators have suggested they will not vote for the pending strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II) without a greater defense increase. But the administration has decided for now not to propose one, Pentagon aides said yesterday.</br></br>They noted that Defense Secretary Harold Brown said Friday on National Public Radio that a 3 percent increase for the next ÛÏseveral years,Û would ÛÏprovide enough scope for us to maintain an adequate balance with the Soviets.Û</br></br>BrownÛªs statement puts him and President Carter at odds with such influential senators as Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.). They have called for a 4 to 5 percent annual increase, indicating this much extra spending would be necessary to make SALT II an acceptable risk.</br></br>will be hard enough to get the majority of Congress to go along with a 3 ' percent- increase, once the extra billions required are toted up, far less plump for 5 percent.