Posted on 02/26/2009 4:35:02 AM PST by meowmeow
The Pentagon said Wednesday that top military officers and civilians had to sign a letter promising to keep details secret as they work on the military's budget.
Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that Secretary Robert Gates made the unusual request out of concern for national security. He said the department didn't want any leaks to "unravel" the budget process.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Mr. Obama also said Tuesday that the U.S. will no longer hide the price of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, a senior U.S. official confirmed that the president will seek $75.5 billion in additional funding for combat operations for the current fiscal year and $130 billion for the fiscal year 2010, on top of the $534 billion in the defense budget.
First of all, supplemental budgets aren't "hiding" anything (as the report indicated), they are just separate from normal DoD appropriations to help them pass through congress faster. They still end up as public record once passed.
Any DoD budget is internal to DoD until signed by the President. So why go to this length? What are they trying to hide in their new transparent government? National security my shiny metal a...
...Because money in a supplemental war appropriation must be used for its intended purpose: the troops. Can't divert it or tack on 1 million for the perverted arts. Of course they don't like it - they can't steal it as easily!
Hiding money for their new Shining Path People’s National Defense Force.
That, and they don’t want people to se the gigantic cuts into our defense and intelligence budgets.
It will be intersting to see the height of the tide of leakage from 0be's Admin.
Will H! not leak if it's to her advantage?
Ah...but H! is not in the financial loop any more and does not have access to the DoD money side. State is a different budget.
http://www.militaryfamiliesunited.org/
#
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/Default.aspx?id=428292
“Obama putting military in harm’s way?”
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 2/26/2009 5:00:00 AM
SNIPPET: “A military advocacy organization is not happy with President Barack Obama’s plans to drastically cut defense spending by $53 billion.”
Why? Simple: they are going to eviserate the Defense budget and don’t want anyone complaining about it till its too late.
Transparency, Ha. They always have one more excuse why they have to hide what they are up to.
People ought to see this as truely frightening. You know they are up to no good and something that is not Constitutional in nature.
Instead, therefore, one ought reasonably consider that
this might be another of Pres.Obama's plans, which on examination are more than favorable to
the enemies of the people of the United States of America.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53233
Gates Calls for Forthright, Collegial Budget Discussions
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has called for forthright, collegial discussions among Defense Department leaders to make tough choices about programs, projects and procurement as the defense portion of the fiscal 2010 federal budget takes shape.
Gates asked those participating in the discussions to sign a nondisclosure agreement because leaks may discourage the free exchange of ideas, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today.
“This is highly sensitive stuff, involving programs costing tens of billions of dollars, employing hundreds of thousands of people and go to the heart of our national security,” Morrell said. “He wants this process to be as disciplined and as forthright as possible.”
Gates wants the budget to be judged as a whole, rather than in parts via selective leaks, Morrell said. The secretary thinks the agreement “will create a climate in which you can ultimately produce a better product, as people can speak candidly with the confidence that it will not be leaked,” he added.
The secretary wants the budget to be judged in its totality “because that’s where you will see the strategic balance he is trying to build,” Morrell said.
In testimony before Congress in January, Gates talked about making the hard choices on procurement. Projects that are significantly behind schedule or over budget are more likely to face the budget ax, he said.
Gates called for discipline in the acquisition process and said the department must freeze requirements at contract time.
Big-ticket items are going to go through a very thorough review as part of the fiscal 2010 budget process, Morrell said.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget is expected to announce top-line budget figures tomorrow, along with a fiscal 2010 war supplement.
Obama wants to stop the supplemental process and transfer the costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the base budget, but will not be able to do so this year, Morrell said.
“It’s extremely difficult for us to predict what our level of commitment is going to be in either theater, let alone theaters that we haven’t potentially thought of, God forbid, a year, two years, let alone 10 years from now,” he said. “So we are trying to be as helpful as possible to this process, but some of this stuff is not known at this point.”
Related Articles:
President Says Budget Signifies New Way Forward for Defense
...The DoD budget has been reduces to a packet of old food-stamps and a couple of jars of [contaminated] peanut-butter.
More suppresion of free speech!
This a$$hat is shutting down public debate on the subject of tearing down our national security infrastructure.
This tactic allows Obama to cut programs without anybody knowing about it until it’s a done deal.
They call it a DICTATORSHIP!!!!!!!!
We know that the DoD is coming under Obama's axe. We also know that when Defense budgets (or any other budgets) are formulated that there is a lot of in-fighting and the leaks tend to come from the program managers who are facing the cuts. Neither Obama nor Gates want to be answering a lot of tough questions about specific program cuts before the budget gets rammed through. That is what this is all about.
The Defense Budget is 4% larger than last year’s budget.
The simple reality is there have been no massive cuts in the Defense Budget under Obama.
There’s going to be massive cuts in PROGRAMS because so many procurement programs are ridiculously over budget, and so much money is going to expansion of the troop strength of the Army and USMC.
But these program cuts would have happened under McCain as well.
I know that’s not what people want to believe or rant about, but it’s the simple reality.
You haven’t heard about Barney Frank’s idea...
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