Pentagon to cut spending by $78 billion, reduce troop strength

The Washington Post ^ | January 6, 2011 | Craig Whitlock

[bert]

Work on the rail gun should be ended. It must be in the bailiwick of strong congressional protectors who keep it going for decades with mostly press releases for results

I’m sure there are other such money pits to be trimmed

[Captain Kirk]

Are you seriously comparing the power of a few thoussand ragged Taliban living in caves (who never attacked us) to the might of the Nazis?!

Actually, your figures are quite amazing. The Afghan War cost one fourth of WWII! Afghanistan, of course, is a relatively small proportion of the total cost of world policing, now about a trillion in a single year!

[Captain Kirk]

you’d save $1.391 TRILLION each and every year

Excellent, however, we could almost double those cuts in a SINGLE YEAR if we bring home the troops from their bases in 120 countries and emphasize national defense (the goal envisioned by the founders), rather than policing the world (now costing a trillion per year)

[anglian]

http://www.militarybudget.info/overseas.html
Base Realignment and Closure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_bases Mar 20, 2010 - equipment maintenance activities at worldwide operating bases, Air National Guard/AF Reserve sites, and selected North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ...
www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/budget/fy2011/.../0708012f.pdf

[Captain Kirk]

We're agreed that everythign should be cut but there is no evidence that military spending "will be cut." See here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2653423/posts

[xzins]

Yes, I’m comparing Islamic Jihad to Nazism. Both are totalitarian, but Islam is much larger than Nazism ever hoped to be. There are over a billion Muslims on this planet. There is at least one nuclear Islamic state. And another that’s claimed it has purchased the use of nukes for its needs.

And the war to win Afghanistan is actually a war to determine the fate of Pakistan. The most difficult part of the Afghan War is on the other side of its border with Pakistan.

So would you rather project power to the tune of a percent of our GDP or would you rather let the threat grow until stopping it becomes a matter of a third of our GDP?

I choose to project power.

[gogogodzilla]

The only way I’d be for a cut in military spending is when we cut the amount of military commitments we have worldwide.

Like you said, if we were to pull out of places like South Korea, Germany, etc... then it’d make sense.

That said, I don’t see our politicians reducing our military commitments at any time. Only trying to cut the funding necessary to *MEET* those commitments they pledged.

[TomasUSMC]

Problem...we don’t even have the capacity to produce OUR OWN BULLETS. We rely on our Communist Enemies to.

[El Gato]

BX/PX are non-appropriated fund activities. Other than the buildings. It takes no more space to sell high end items than low end ones. They sell what sells.

Exchanges have never, going back to the 70s at least, been about being low priced. They don't compete with WalMart or K-Mart, they compete with Sears and higher end stores. They are about selling quality merchandise, generally at a lower price than the same quality merchandise would be "in town".

I recently bought a recumbent exercise bike. At the lowest price i could find on line. (Many stores had the same price). The very same model was in the PX flyer for about $40 less, IIRC. (I worked on an Army post, but am not eligible to use the PX.. not since the mid '80s)

Too bad too, they have guns now in some locations. And the prices are pretty good, but the selection is limited, although they seem to have picked the more popular models to sell.

[El Gato]

Just cutting half of those over priced fighter jets will get the job done.

How about this one...

Oh wait, that a Red Chinese overpriced fighter jet.

Never mind.

[El Gato]

I used to work for DoD and there are vast amounts of duplicative and unnecessary bureaucracy that not only could but should be cut.

But it won't be. The nature of organizations, private and public, is that cuts come at the worker bee level, not a the managers level. Plus they cut the lowest level worker bees, and the the one's who filter down, retain their original pay rates, usually.

[El Gato]

the military costs more than the whole non-defense discretionary budget

So? It should be. It's the prime purpose for having a national government.

It's the non-discretionary parts of the budget that are out of control, pretty much by definition.

[GailA]

Then the constant remodeling and repaving can be cut from the budget. A parking lot does not need repaving every 2 years.