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 ...
Same poor decisions when it comes to state budgets, the politicians always threaten to cut the most important govt functions (police, etc) instead of the least (social services, pensions, etc).
Believe me, the DoD has been in a culture of “doing more with less” for many decades
Gates’ remarks are disturbingly detached from real life in the trenches
again
Exactly what I was thinking, especially the first one.
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.
Funding and hence budgeting is but a two years MAX proposition as per the Constitution...
Obviously, Gates is but another 0zero stooge...
If I am not mistaken, the Executive simply directs the military he does not create or fund it -that would be the job of the Legislature.
Article I, Section 8 - The Legislative Branch - "To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy"Article II, Section 2 - The Executive Branch - "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States"
the troops in Japan and Germany are not there to defend Japan and Germany, per se
They are there to backstop forward operations against North Korea, China or Russia, they also support many logistics requirements in SWA
Sorry. I don’t believe in any cuts for the military while we are at war. It’s to me dispicable, and counter productive. Wars are to be won, and cutting the funding isn’t contributing to the winning of those wars.
You notice Zero targeted the Military and NOT the EPA or EDU or Interior or.......................
I agree with Gates on this one. Ronal Reagan in the Mid-80s had a DoD annual budget of around 400 Billion $s. The US Army had 16 or so divisions, The US Navy had 16 CV Battle Groups and so on. I say RETIRE 3/4 or ALL General and Flag “Officers” and rid the Enlisted Ranks of the E-8/E-9 Pay Grades and you will save a BUNDLE!
Fine borrow some more money. We are 14 trillion dollars in the hole, when do you want to stop digging.
It is all rhetoric. Gates cannot cut the size OR the budget of the military. That is in the hands of Congress.
There’s plenty elsewhere, and you know it.
In addition to the obvious reduction in our military abilities, this also bodes very badly for defense contractors and their employees.
I have several friends who are engineers with various defense contractors and many have been thru rounds of lay-offs and fortunately rehires. This may change that to lay-offs only.
So strange how the current administration can’t spend enough money on so-called “stimulus” and yet, in a period of such high unemployment already, now wants to reduce the one area that actually does a lot of good.
Yes and i’m for cutting that as well. Just cutting half of those over priced fighter jets will get the job done.
They are after Chief’s in the Navy.
How much more BS is gates going to spew? He has been itching to gut the Military from day one. Sure there are places to cut, but Troop strength is not one of them, nor is their health care.
Stop repaving commissary parking lots that don’t need it, or remodeling them when they don’t need it. Take out all the HIGH end crap out of the Exchanges we don’t need Coach handbags or $200 bread machines. Other than saving on sales tax the Exchanges or PX’s have become a joke.
2) Diversity Training
3) Multicultural Specialists
4) Wiccan Chaplains
5) Committees in charge of reducing the carbon footprint of the military.
JMHO, if there even starts to smell like trouble, there are still enough Old School or Trained By Old School Military around that a whole bunch of those REMF's will fall off the fantail in a flat calm, go jogging in mine fields or suddenly decide they've got to go home to Mommy before one or all of the above occur.
....just sayin'.....
Peace dividend???????????????
Have to punish the Marines for not wanting homosexuals?????
With as much money as is wasted on useless paper in the procurement system, there is absolutely no need for this.
How on Earth can you cut something that you don’t have. The last congress has not even passed a budget yet. The Republican Congress should have made this there first job. Why on Earth can they not pass a budget? I hear the earliest they will have a budget passed is March. Since this supposed budget goes until October 2011, what would happen if they just said “screw it” and not submit a budget. Would it cause a lot of problems? I mean except for the fact that I can’t order anything for my job right now, nothing has changed....I just buy it out of pocket which they say is illegal....lol. Yeah sure. Whatever. I need it and they can’t pay because there is no money and yet they don’t want me to pay out of pocket. The government is so stupid at times.
The military is making recruiting in enlisted and officer right now and don’t need anyone at this time. However, the minute the economy is back, the military will be begging for folks to join. Giving huge bonus’ and finding out that the GI Bill might have been to generous. lol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.