Free Republic

It will be tempting to accede to the White House's proposal to carve out $400 billion, if not more, from the national security budget by 2023. It would also be a grievous mistake. The critical difference between today and past eras, however, is that the proliferation of biological, chemical and even nuclear weapons means that America's margin for error is considerably more modest. Defense spending is now 19% of federal outlays and declining. This is the lowest percentage since before World War II. At 4.7% of GDP, the defense budget is dwarfed by the cost of Social Security, Medicare and...

A House panel approved a defense bill early Thursday that would delay President Obama's new policy allowing gays to serve openly in the military and limit the commander in chief's authority on slashing the nation's nuclear arsenal. By a vote of 60-1, the House Armed Services Committee approved the broad, $553 billion defense blueprint that would provide a 1.6 percent increase in military pay, fund an array of aircraft, ships and submarines, slightly increase health care fees for working-age retirees and meet the Pentagon's request for an additional $118 billion to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The committee, on...

Social Security may be the third rail of American politics, but the defense budget is at least worthy of notable mention. In fact, the defense budget is arguably the most politically sensitive budget item after entitlement spending. Conservatives and Republicans, who have enjoyed an advantage over their liberal counterparts on national security issues since Vietnam, too often associate a “strong national defense” simply with increases in defense spending—without considering the expenditures in the context of broader U.S. grand strategy. Many conservatives and Republicans are reluctant to propose cuts to the defense budget out of fear for appearing weak. Many just...

The Senate, by a vote of 56-43 did not pass the motion to proceed to debate on the defense authorization bill (S.3454). The procedural vote seeked to move the bill forward and begin the general debate; however 60 votes were needed to pass the motion. The source of the conflict were two provisions in the bill; repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and an immigration measure, the DREAM Act. Republicans have voiced their opposition to the measures, as well as Democratic leaders’ refusal to allow the other side to bring forth their amendments for consideration. In the House, Democratic...

....the Air Force is thinking of retiring its total 66-plane B-1 fleet to hit budget targets set by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Top Air Force officials met behind closed doors late last week to determine if permanently grounding the B-1 fleet makes sense....

Defense budgets are not declining and will remain stable through 2015. Defense spending will remain at about 21 percent of total federal outlays, or around 4.7 percent of GDP, according to an analysis of the 2011 defense budget by business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. However, in a big change to business as usual, the defense budget will no longer be evenly divided between the three services as it has for around the past forty years. The ground forces will be the big winners in future years; the Army’s slice of the budget pie will grow as mountains of equipment...

I'm here to blow a hole in the myth that Clinton created an amazing budget surplus that Bush squandered and turned into a huge deficit. The above chart shows the deficit/surplus since 1980, pay no attention to Obama's first year. I've talked enough about his budget deficit recently. The following is a chart of the Nasdaq from 1990 until now: Read more at floppingaces.net...

Defense: The administration decision to scrap a proven aircraft in favor of a supposedly cheaper, more flexible replacement is proving to be an expensive mistake. We may wind up defenseless and broke. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that was supposed to be America's frontline fighter for the foreseeable future is in big trouble. Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the general in charge of the program this week amid concerns of spiraling costs and program delays. Gates also announced he is withholding $614 million in fees from the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin. Daniel J. Crowley, one of Lockheed Martin's project managers,...

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have taken a small but significant step to eliminate – well, almost – one of the most outrageous congressional behaviors in defense legislation. For years, these committees have raided the Pentagon’s critical Operation and Maintenance accounts to offset the cost of earmarks (pork) they add to their bills. A major part of the O&M budget pays for training, weapons maintenance, food, fuel, spare parts, and all the other things troops need when they go to war. Even though O&M spending is the budgetary embodiment of “Support Our Troops,” and even though research on these raids...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete. Call it Plan B for dealing with Iran, which recently revealed a long-suspected nuclear site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom. The 15-ton behemoth will be the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. "I don't think anybody can divine potential targets," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. The administration has been careful not to take military action off the table even as it reaches out to...

Charlie Rangel is trying to prove that you can go home again, or at least pork can go home again. In the latest defense bill Charlie Rangel slipped in a $3 million dollar earmark for CCNY. The defense department didn't want the project. Rangel's association with the school was strengthened years ago with his vanity earmarks surrounding the Charles Rangel School of Public Service at CCNY. This Charlie Rangel “Monument to Me” project was partially funded though US Government grants, directed by the Ways and Means Committee Chairman: Two years after creating a center in his own name at City...

WASHINGTON — As President Barack Obama weighs major shifts in strategy in the deteriorating mission in Afghanistan, the Senate on Tuesday passed a bill bringing total U.S. tab for that war to about $300 billion. The $626 billion measure, passed 93-7, also would ban outright any transfer of accused enemy combatants from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility into the United States. Current law permits transfer of detainees to face trial or go to prison.The underlying bill combines $128 billion for overseas military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with $498 billion for the rest of the Defense Department's budget. An...

Note: The following text is a quote: News American Forces Press Service Obama, Gates Lead Defense Acquisition Reforms By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2009 – President Barack Obama threw his weight behind the Defense Department’s acquisition reform efforts earlier this week, emphasizing that unnecessary spending hurts not only taxpayers, but also warfighters on the front lines. “Every dollar wasted in our defense budget is a dollar we can’t spend to care for our troops or protect America or prepare for the future,” the president told participants at the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ 110th convention, in...

The House on Thursday bucked President Barack Obama’s veto threats and overwhelmingly approved a $636 billion Pentagon spending bill for fiscal 2010. The bill, passed on a 400-30 vote, does meet Obama’s demand to cap the F-22 fighter jet program, something he personally lobbied for. But the measure still contains funding on two programs that have drawn veto threats from the administration. In particular, the White House this week threatened to veto the bill over $560 million for an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as well as $485 million for new helicopters to fly the president on...

Federal Spending: With the money spent on honeybee insurance in the stimulus package, the Army could buy nine utility helicopters and employ 1,200 skilled workers. Have we forgotten that the nation's interstate highway system was a defense project?The repairing of the nation's roads, bridges and infrastructure is touted by supporters of the stimulus package as a way of creating jobs that America needs to revitalize its economy. The interstate highway system initiated by President Dwight Eisenhower is cited as the kind of job-creating infrastructure work we need to do. What isn't noted is that when Eisenhower announced the program, he...

Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for U.S. military spending next year is a $160 million pot of money intended to help Mexico's police buy American-made police radios.It's a major purchase that one radio manufacturer got rolling, 12 members of Congress formally requested and a powerful defense appropriations chairman championed, according to records and congressional staff. But details of the plan to pump Pentagon funds into Mexico's crime-fighting efforts are cloaked in vaguely worded language in the House defense bill. The program is a one of many congressional requests in the bill, which also includes 1,080 projects worth $2.7 billion...

America, Israel and Japan are now at a crossroad. America may not be able to sell an export version of the best fighter in the world, the F-22, to Israel and Japan. The reason is the Administration's current insistence on holding fast to a DOD-budgeted production run of F-22s that will stop soon at 187. The harsh reality of stopping F-22 production will be two American allies who are in increasing mortal danger will not have access to the absolute best when they really need America's help. It has been argued that the F-35 is a great substitute for the...

Defense Spending: The TARP bailout may hit $24 trillion, but the Senate says the F-22 is too expensive to build and maintain. So why are the Japanese so desperate to buy this "unnecessary" Cold War weapon?By a vote of 58-40, the Senate on Tuesday voted to remove $1.75 billion set aside in a defense bill to build seven more F-22 Raptors, adding to the 187 stealth technology fighters already in the pipeline. After some hope the production lines would be kept open, the Senate succumbed to arguments by the administration and others that the fighter was too expensive, too hard...

The most senior retired military officer to back President Obama's run for the White House says the president is making a "real mistake" in terminating F-22 production. Retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, who was the Air Force chief of staff during the 1991 Operation Desert Storm and who credited air power with winning the war, was the first four-star officer to endorse the one-term senator in his presidential campaign. McPeak traveled with Obama to bolster the candidate's commander-in-chief credentials, much to the chagrin of the general's fighter pilot colleagues. But now McPeak is breaking with Obama on the president's most contentious...

Defense: By a narrow margin, a House subcommittee has voted to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line. The future of American air dominance and the fate of the world's most capable fighter hang in the balance.On May 30, with North Korea huffing and puffing about nuclear war, the first of 12 high-tech U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jets landed at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It was just days after North Korea unnerved the region by detonating a nuclear device. There were reasons the F-22 was deployed to Japan. The stealthy, radar-evading fighter jet is...