[BfloGuy]

The problem is the military cannot "stomach" them.

Get a grip. The military budget is not being "cut".

The projected growth in the Pentagon's budget will be reduced by $50 billion a year. Spending on the military will still increase spectacularly.

And when Panetta tells you that he's been "forced" to keep the "Harry S. Truman" in port because of budget cuts, just think of your local county executive who is "forced" to cut ambulance services because his selfish constitutents don't want another tax increase.

It's all designed to get defenders of the military upset. He's got choices. He has a budget the size of a medium-sized country to manage. He chooses to cut what he knows will outrage.

- economic malaise

Nonsense. Military spending does not create economic growth. Sure, it puts people to work, but so does adding a few thousand IRS auditors. Anything the government spends goes down an economic rathole.

Now, you may approve of military spending more than you do, say, EPA spending. I do, too. But defend military spending on military reasons -- not economic reasons. It doesn't fly.

[supercat]

just think of your local county executive who is "forced" to cut ambulance services because his selfish constitutents don't want another tax increase.

I call that "passive-aggressive budgeting": assign the lowest priority to the most important things; that way, since they can't be cut, nothing can be cut.

[SkyPilot]

Get a grip. The military budget is not being "cut".

You have no idea what you are talking about.

The US military was cut by Obama by $450 Billion over ten years starting in 2011. Those were real cuts. Thousands of jobs were lost. Weapon systems and modernization cancelled. As part of that cut, thousands of troops will be eliminated (those are in the projections, Obama ordered the uniformed reductions so they would come after the 2012 election). Sequestration is $600 Billion on top of that cut.

I do not understand the "burn it all down" rhetoric of some of this forum. I am as fed up with next person with our give away programs that shovel Trillions to the takers in our midst. But punishing our military and breaking faith with our men and women in uniform is obscene.

Nonsense. Military spending does not create economic growth.

Again, you do not know what you are talking about.

Of course military spending, research, manufacturing, logistics, construction, and medical care creates economic growth. Good heavens. Even hard core leftist Marxist acknowledge this.

Why do you think the GPD shrunk 0.1% into negative territory last quarter? It was because with the Obama cuts to Defense and Sequestration looming, military spending dropped 22.1%, the largest drop in over 40 years.

Decline in defense spending drags down GDP but experts say it's only the beginning

You claim that the DoD's announcements of real cut backs are akin to your local town cutting firemen or police instead of bureaucrats, but you are mistaken. The military is not playing PR games here. Please understand, this is not a game. Because Obama ordered that the Sequester cuts not touch troop strength this year, the military must take all of those cuts from Operations and Maintenance (O&M). That is the life blood of military operations. The cuts may be up to 30%. That is a hollow military, period.

Defense spending also contributes billions of dollars into our economy with Foreign Military Sales (FMS) each year.

The Pentagon is not joking this time. These cuts will gut training, operations, modernization, and most importantly morale.