<HTML> <HEAD> <META NAME="document_name" CONTENT="V000302-010299"> <META NAME="public" CONTENT="yes"> <META NAME="source" CONTENT="APO"> <META NAME="story_type" CONTENT="Washington"> <META NAME="ad_queue" CONTENT="/wp-srv/national/ap"> <META NAME="content_type" CONTENT="text"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT=""> <META NAME="embargo_date" CONTENT="19990102"> <META NAME="kill_date" CONTENT="19990116"> <META NAME="pub_date" CONTENT="19990102"> <META NAME="create_date" CONTENT="19990102"> <META NAME="event_date" CONTENT="19990102"> <META NAME="recv_time" CONTENT="199901021222"> <META NAME="hit_disp_date" CONTENT="Jan 2"> <META NAME="hit_disp_time" CONTENT="12:22 p.m."> <META NAME="selection_code" CONTENT="President, White House, Advisers"> <META NAME="sel_code_num" CONTENT="1151"> <META NAME="story_priority" CONTENT="Rush"> <META NAME="slugline" CONTENT="AP-Clinton"> <META NAME="version" CONTENT=""> <META NAME="reference" CONTENT=""> <META NAME="word_count" CONTENT="782"> <META NAME="categories" CONTENT=""> <META NAME="companies" CONTENT=""> <META NAME="sld" CONTENT="V"> <META NAME="category" CONTENT="w"> <META NAME="format_area" CONTENT=""> <META NAME="format_identifier" CONTENT="DC3 DC1"> <META NAME="editors" CONTENT="">  <TITLE>Clinton Eyes Defense Spending Boost</TITLE> </HEAD> <body background="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/news_bg.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" link="#333399" alink="#9999CC" vlink="#6666CC"> <A NAME="TOP"></A> <table width="590" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <TR> <td valign="bottom" align="left" width="116"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/maps/artbanner.map"><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/panicbttns.gif" width=116 height=65 border="0" alt="The Washington Post" ISmap></a></td> <td width="6"><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/spacer.gif" width="6" height="10" border="0" alt=" "></td> <td valign="top" width="468"><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/13218/TopLeft/DTK-ROS-1/dtk1-portcobrand468.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/13218/TopLeft/DTK-ROS-1/dtk1-portcobrand468.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 ALT="" border=0></A></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="590" colspan="3" valign="top" align="left"><A href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/maps/global_nav.map"><IMG src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/global.gif" width="590" height="15" border="0" alt="Navigation Bar" ISmap></a><br> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/maps/polnav.map"><IMG src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/globalnav4.gif" width="590" height="13" border="0" alt="Navigation Bar" ISmap></a></td> </tr> </TABLE> <br clear=all> <table width="590" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td width="124"> <table width="124" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tr> <td width="120" bgcolor="#666699" valign="middle"><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/spacer.gif" width="120" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="120" bgcolor="#666699" valign="middle"><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/4521/Middle/WAS-ROS-2/auto120.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/4521/Middle/WAS-ROS-2/auto120.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" WIDTH=120 HEIGHT=90 ALT="1999 Auto Show" border=0></A></td> </tr> </table> <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/maps/partners.map"><IMG SRC="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/globalnav/images/partners.gif" WIDTH=124 HEIGHT=46 BORDER=0 VSPACE="8" ALT="Partners:" ismap></A>   <table width="124" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="120" bgcolor="#666699" valign="middle"><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/spacer.gif" width="120" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="120" bgcolor="#666699" valign="middle"><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/5462/Right1/ETR-ROS-3/etrd8bt7_120nw.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/5462/Right1/ETR-ROS-3/etrd8bt7_120nw.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" WIDTH=120 HEIGHT=90 ALT="E*Trade(R) Celebrity Challenge. 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It would mark the first time since 1991, the year of the Persian Gulf War, that Pentagon spending rose above the level of inflation. <P> It also would be the largest increase since President Reagan's Cold War buildup of the mid-1980s. <P> Plotted over six years, the Clinton administration's proposal would commit $100 billion additional funds to shoring up Pentagon readiness, recruitment and modernization programs. The president's overall Defense Department request for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 would bring total military spending to $268.2 billion, a $10-billion increase over levels planned for this year, administration officials said. <P> For Clinton, the proposal represented a big political shift from his presidency's long-exclusive focus on domestic spending. He was responding to complaints by military leaders and Republicans about a deteriorating level of readiness in a military under strain from declining recruitment, aging equipment, expanding anti-terrorism commitments and increasing overseas campaigns from Bosnia to Iraq. <P> The budget proposal, which also includes a 4.4 percent military pay raise, the largest since 1982, ``will help us to do right by our troops by upgrading and replacing aging equipment, barracks and family housing,'' Clinton said. <P> The new money would also pay for joint exercises, flight training, badly needed spare parts, recruiting and ``the next generation'' of ships, planes and weapons systems, Clinton said. <P> Reacting to the Clinton broadcast, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., ranking Democrat on the House National Security Committee, worried that even a $12 billion increase in fiscal 2000 would not ``be sufficient to take care of the needs of the troops plus modernize our forces.'' <P> Separately, officials said Clinton's fiscal 2000 budget will seek a 12 percent, $105 million increase in food safety programs, most of it to upgrade Agriculture Department inspections at smaller meat and poultry processing plants. <P> White House budget director Jack Lew said Clinton's budget, due to Congress in early February, would ``balance defense needs with an aggressive domestic agenda in the context of the president's overall policy to save the surplus until we fix Social Security.'' <P> Clinton has not advanced a plan for overhauling Social Security, but his aides have been busy executing a public relations campaign of sanctioned news ``leaks'' about spending proposals. <P> The strategy, coming as the Senate weighs how to proceed with Clinton's impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky affair, has a double intent: To remind friendly and powerful interest groups that the president remains an ally and in control; and to show Americans a chief executive immersed in business, standing above congressional squabbling over whether he should remain in office. <P> As senators float trial balloons on whether to take his impeachment by the House to a full trial, Clinton also is putting an edge on the political weapon credited with helping him ride out the first revelations of the Lewinsky scandal last year: the annual State of the Union address to Congress and the nation. <P> The speech, scheduled for Jan. 19, will not only outline his ideas but also underscore his resolve to serve out the two years remaining in his term, aides said. <P> During the week, Clinton will preside at three separate White House events aimed at showcasing progress on his health, education and crime initiatives. On Friday, he speaks at the Detroit Economic Club on challenges to the booming domestic economy. <P> <CENTER><P>© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press<P><A HREF="#TOP">Back to the top</A></CENTER> </TD> </TR> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/spacer.gif" width="124" height="25" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/spacer.gif" width="20" height="25" border="0" alt=""></td> <td><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/spacer.gif" width="446" height="25" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table>  <TABLE WIDTH="590" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="0"> <TR> <td width="590" colspan="3" valign="top" align="left"><A href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/maps/global_nav.map"><IMG src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/global.gif" width="590" height="15" border="0" alt="Navigation Bar" ISmap></a><br> <A href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/maps/polnav.map"><IMG src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/globalnav4.gif" width="590" height="13" border="0" alt="Navigation Bar" ISmap></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="120" align="left" valign="middle"><a href="/wp-srv/yp/front.htm"><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/yp_genarticle.gif" width=110 height=24 BORDER="0" alt=""></a><br><img src="/wp-srv/globalnav/images/clearspc.gif" width="120" height="1" alt=""></td> <td width="234" align="left" valign="top"><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/28227/Left/MGA-ROS-3/mega_all_bannerb.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/28227/Left/MGA-ROS-3/mega_all_bannerb.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" WIDTH=234 HEIGHT=60 ALT="Mega Employment" border=0></A></td> <td width="236" align="right" valign="top"><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/26243/BottomRight/CPN-ROS-1/CC_halfbanner.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://www.washingtonpost.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/ap/26243/BottomRight/CPN-ROS-1/CC_halfbanner.gif/64306631613334393336366461626230" WIDTH=234 HEIGHT=60 ALT="Yellow Pages Coupon Clicker" border=0></A></td> </TR> </TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>