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WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2007 – The Defense Department reported strong recruiting numbers for fiscal 2007 today, as all four active-duty components met their goals for the year. David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, answers a question during an Oct. 10, 2007, Pentagon news conference on the latest recruiting and retention figures for the military services as the service recruiting chiefs -- (left to right) Air Force Brig. Gen. Suzanne Vautrinot, Navy Rear Adm. Joseph Kilkenny, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Tryon, and Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick -- stand by to answer further questions. Photo...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2007 – Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody swore in six new recruits and re-enlisted six soldiers in a ceremony yesterday celebrating the service’s success in recruiting and retention for fiscal 2007. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody congratulates newly enlisted Logan Bilyeu of Bend, Ore., during a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., Oct. 4, 2007. Photo by Staff Sgt. Christina M. O'Connell, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Although the numbers won't be available for another week, the Army met all Active, National Guard and...

WASHINGTON, March 6 — With Congress heading into a politically perilous budget season, influential House conservatives plan this week to propose an austere alternative spending plan that would pare more than $650 billion over five years, balance the budget and drastically shrink three cabinet agencies. The legislation, part of a push by some Republicans to re-establish themselves as champions of fiscal restraint, was taking shape as President Bush struck a similar theme on Monday by asking Congress to grant him line-item veto power to eliminate federal spending that he might judge wasteful. "We can't be all things to all people...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- President Bush defended his new budget blueprint on Wednesday amid criticism from both parties over plans to trim popular health benefit programs. He then signed an earlier installment of scaled-back spending. Bush made similar pitches for spending restraint at a business forum in New Hampshire, and later at the bill-signing ceremony at the White House, where he praised steps that he said would both check federal spending and "leave more money in the pockets of those who know how to use it best, the American people." At the White House, he signed a measure - left...