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 ...
when we said we wanted the govt to cut back on spending we didnt mean the damn military.
Glad I got my commission when I did! Although even if I wanted to go active right now, I wouldn’t be able to. I have heard they are not taking anyone below the rank of CPT.
Where’s the plan to reduce the missions we require of them.
A damn drop in the bucket.
Well, my thought is this: could Germany, Japan, etc. run more of their own defense instead of having our troops patrolling around? I honestly think so, and honestly if self-reliance is a conservative virtue, why not place most of Europe, and the nations we used to occupy on a path to self-reliance? It honestly make sense to me at face value, but only at face value. I honestly hope and send my appeals though, that it’s not just the military, but also working out the other problems as well.
I guess we could have expected Obama to slash the military budget and weaken America further.
This nation is upside down.
Clinton/Carter approach. Make us defenseless and vulnerable to attack. Brilliant!
I smell a RAT. This announcement the day of the House Republican reading of the Constitution. The loss of the supermajority in the Senate etc.
Yeah, I smell a RAT. A BIG RAT.
It’s all politics all the time with the Leftists, and Gates ain’t no Conservative.
Unless western countries protect their borders and stop islmic immigration then a military is becoming almost a waste. America is being destroyed from the inside.
Fighting a war that we’re essentially losing with a smaller budget,the math doesn’t work.
Under this regime, that's the FIRST place they'll cut. Seen any substantial cuts anywhere else in the government?
How about we pull out of the Balkans entirely, and let old Europe deal with the Albanian Muslims and their Middle Eastern financiers and military backers all by themselves?
Budget this year was over $708 , that cut over 5 years is about 10%. A year, not much.
You’re right, but the Left wants us to lose.
Obama's left wing base needs some comforting.
DOD will reduce troop,cut training and miltary hardware strength yet will expand:
1) Gay/Lesbian awareness personnel
2) Diversity Training
3) Multicultural Specialists
4) Wiccan Chaplains
5) Committees in charge of reducing the carbon footprint of the military.
Our next war will be disastrous...
This is easy to achieve without harming readiness one iota. Does anyone doubt that there is more $ than this wasted in just contractor fraud alone? Revolving door sinecures? How about all those fancy perks for the General Staff and the mass of senior officer? Cripes, what’s the payroll for all those drones that wander the halls of the Pentagon?
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