Zinke uses national address to push for defense measure

Speaking as a veteran and military dad about Father’s Day, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., used the weekly Republican address on Saturday to blast Democrats for not backing an increase in defense spending.

At issue is the $612 billion National Defense Authorization Act. Democrats have balked at both the speed at which the bill is moving toward passage and at a more than $80 billion spending increase added by Republicans.

Republicans have seized on Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s remarks that debating the bill was a “waste of time” because President Barack Obama has said he will veto the bill.

Zinke, from Whitefish, targeted Reid in his speech Saturday morning.

Reid “was talking about a plan that provides the resources for critical medical supplies, food, body armor and ammunition,” Zinke said. “This plan also gives our troops a pay raise — a raise that I think we can all agree they’ve earned. But because President Obama threatened to veto the bill, Senator Harry Reid thought it was all a ‘waste of time.’”

Zinke accused Democrats of using the legislation as a bargaining chip to bolster other agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and Environmental Protection Agency.

“Taking care of our troops should be our top priority, but it isn’t on the Democrats’ to-do list right now,” said Zinke, a 23-year Navy veteran. “They’ve lost sight of American values in favor of Washington politics. To think President Obama still has no strategy to defeat and destroy ISIS, yet his party has a strategy to get more money for the IRS.”

This is the first time Zinke was selected by House Speaker John Boehner to give the Republican weekly address. Freshmen are rarely chosen to take the party’s weekly national stage and speak for the Republican majority.

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