Posted on 01/06/2011 12:04:47 PM PST by ConjunctionJunction
The Pentagon will have to cut spending by $78 billion over the next five years, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday, forcing the Army and Marine Corps to shrink the number of troops on active duty and eventually imposing the first freeze on military spending since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The surprise announcement from Gates was a reminder for the military establishment - which has benefited from a gusher of new money over the past decade - that it will not remain exempt from painful austerity measures that federal lawmakers say will be necessary to control the soaring national debt.
In a news conference to announce the cuts, Gates said he hopes that "what had been a culture of endless money . . . will become a culture of savings and restraint" at the Defense Department.
Gates had hoped to spare the Pentagon from the budget ax. Over the past two years, he cut dozens of expensive weapons programs and more recently sought to persuade lawmakers that the military had adopted a newfound thriftiness that would justify small but steady percentage increases in the size of its budget for the foreseeable future.
On Thursday, he said the armed services had successfully carried out a directive he issued in May to squeeze $100 billion in savings over the next five years by eliminating low-priority programs, thinning command structures and reducing overhead at the Pentagon. In return, he said, the Army, Navy and Air Force will get to reallocate nearly all of that money on new weapons systems and other combat-related projects.
But the fiscal realities facing the federal government led the Obama administration in recent weeks to order Gates to cut an additional $78 billion from its long-term spending plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Exactly... Until we have means of transporting troops and equipment overseas in a instant, we are going to have bases overseas..
Speak for yourself. The founders never intended that we police the world. In fact, they rebelled against an empire which once tried to do that. Besides....were broke. We can’t afford to continue paying for bases in 120 countries.
Agreed. Now that military spending will be cut,let’s move on to Medicare and Socialist Security cuts too.
With all the damage soon to ensue by the transformation to a homosexual military, the cutting of the defense budget is rather moot at this point.
In other bugetary news, the DHHS’ buget was increased by 78 billion over the next five years... /s
Can we cut aid to illegal aliens receiving both welfare benefits and healthcare on the Medicaid roles? Can we put a limit on whom is eligible to sign up for Medicare? No more living in the country less than 10 years and all of a sudden, you are receiving full Medicare benefits.
And howsabout we kick them out of the country, so my 19 year old son can get a job somewhere?
So let me see if I’ve got this straight. Here we are in the middle of 2 wars, muslim terrorists coming at us in all directions, a nut job in N. Korea with nukes, another nut job in Iran with nukes, socialist nut jobs to the south of us, an open border on our south side leaking narco terrorists et al, but rather than stop money being spent on illegal immigrants, our “leaders” choose to gut our military. LORD HELP US.
Obama wants an excuse to leave Afghanistan before Election Day in 2012.
And, cutting the military plays well to Obama’s liberal base. However, as we have control of the House, we can still make Obama fund the military adequately.
BTW, Obama wants to increase welfare.
This article is a little misleading.
Good idea. Let's see if anyone in Europe has any balls left.
Well, the money for wealh redistribution has to come from somewhere.
“Everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game.”
— Barack Obama
Ok, we’re at 12 Active Duty Wings, 10 Carrier Battle Groups, 10 Active Divisions in the Army and 3 Marine Divisions? What’s left to cut people? Tell me? I hope the House kills this in the damn bud. I mean GW barely held the line at what Clintoon and friends had cut it to. Most of what would have been a buildup was sucked up in paying for the wars we had to fight...now this? I bet HHS and SSA have NO problem getting money though!
China, Russia, and the US aren't ever going to go to war with each other. If they do, it will be the last war ever fought on the planet.
South Korea has villages with more industrial capacity than North Korea. They can handle their own defense. And if they can't, well how does that hurt Iowa?
This is the beginning of the end of Pax Americana. Just like when was forced to recall their legions from Britannica.
This is the beginning of the end of Pax Americana. Just like when was forced to recall their legions from Britannica.
Meanwhile, Health and Human Services, the EPA and the Dept. of Energy continue to add thousands of bureaucrats.
That means President will have to spend billions to repair he military after Obama puts a hurt on them and pumps up our enemies in various and nefarious ways.
Not everything that's going on in the Pentagon has to do with defending this country.
Here's a perfect example from the government jobs website:
Job Title: Safety and Occupational Health Manager
Department: Department Of Defense
Agency: Defense Media Activity
Job Announcement Number: DMA-11-421363-RB
A safety manager for the DOD media department making nearly 100k a year? There are thousands of these type of make work jobs in the government and the Pentagon is no exception.
Don’t cut. Shift. Shift the money into resources to win the friggin’ war.
I’m NOT one to blindly follow along when someone says the word “cut”. “Shift” is another word that works well in the English language, and one of the best words is “win”.
Dumping EPA, Dept. Education, the expanded Homeland Security, and so many department’s of Leftist schemes, and all the bureaucracies with all the bureacrats spread far and wide, mostly in their rear ends that are funded by the budgets for those departments will more than compensate for the shifted military budget necessary to win the wars.
Take your time. I’ll be back at Six PM PST.
Agreed.
Ditto
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