President Obama is expected to use tonight’s State of the Union address to unveil a new push to reduce the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, according to published reports, but a White House spokesman said that Obama’s speech will not include a “new announcement.” The
New York Times yesterday said that Obama would not reveal specific reduction targets in the annual address, but that the Administration was looking to reduce the size of the nation’s deployed arsenal to “just above 1,000”—down from the 1,550-warhead ceiling established by the New START Treaty. Obama has made nuclear security one of his most important priorities and last year suggested that the nation’s nuclear stockpiles is still ripe for reductions. “I would say that the President made clear publicly his desire to further reduce nuclear arms,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said yesterday. “I don’t think there was anything new in the story that suggested to the contrary. His commitment to arms control and nuclear reductions is well known, but I do not anticipate a new announcement in the State of the Union address.”
Obama may lay groundwork for reductions, but questions remain about exactly how any cuts might be implemented. The Senate is unlikely to sign off on any arms control treaties with Russia, and the Administration is believed to be exploring how to strike an informal deal on reductions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though such a deal would not be subject to Senate approval like a normal treaty, Congressional Republicans are still likely to vehemently oppose such a deal. More details about the reduction targets could be disclosed in coming weeks as a long-awaited Nuclear Posture Review implementation study is released. The news of the President’s plans received a chilly response from Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. “The President believes that cutting our nuclear deterrent results in stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. This thought process is dangerous and naïve,” Turner said. “The President’s reported plans for further reductions to our nuclear arsenal will only harm the security of our nation and our allies. It will do nothing to counter the threat of states seeking nuclear weapons, including North Korea and Iran. If the president wants to show that he is serious on this issue, he would undertake the modernization of our deterrent that he promised the Senate during the New START Treaty.”
