Category: Idiocy

CAN”T TOUCH THIS

The wars are winding down. It's the age of austerity. But nobody messes with the Pentagon budget.

Until Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) rode to the rescue this week, Pentagon brass and their allies had been issuing dire warnings about the nation's military readiness: The armed services were being decimated, they said, by sequestration—the automatic budget cuts that were set to trim $1 trillion from the Pentagon budget over the next decade. “It's one thing for the Pentagon to go on a diet. It's another for the Pentagon to wear a straitjacket while dieting,” grumbled Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.). The message got through: The House overwhelmingly approved the Ryan-Murray plan just two days after it was introduced.

But now, the Pentagon has once more gotten a reprieve from the budget ax: Under Murray and Ryan's congressional budget deal, the Pentagon will get an additional $32 billion, or 4.4 percent, in 2014, leaving its base budget at a higher level than in 2005 and 2006. (The Department of Defense expects its total 2014 budget, including supplemental war funding, to be more than $600 billion.)

Before the budget deal, some critics of defense spending had been ready to accept sequestration as the blunt, imperfect tool that might force the military to shed some of the bulk it acquired while fighting two of the longest and most expensive wars in our history. Even with the sequester in place, the Pentagon's base budget was set to remain well above pre-9/11 levels for the next decade, and the military would have taken a far smaller haircut than it did after Vietnam and the Cold War wound down.

MUST READ WITH MUST SEE GRAPHICS AND SPECIFICS

Phi Beta Iota: This is a dishonest budget that is not in the public interest. While the DoD budget has been dishonest since the Cold War was manufactured in the aftermath of WWII, we are now in an era where public intelligence with integrity is capable of exposing lies and blatant corruption at the highest levels. Neither the Secretary of Defense nor the service chiefs are being honest or professional in relation to real needs. Not only do we NEED a 450 ship Navy, a long-haul Air Force, and an air-mobile Army, but we need a Pentagon that can accomplish this AND cut 30% of the budget over 4 years. Absent intelligence with integrity, this will not happen.

See Also:

2013 Robert Steele: Reflections on Reform 2.2 Numbers for 30% DoD Cut over 2-4 Years

2012 Robert Steele: Addressing the Seven Sins of Foreign Policy — Why Defense, Not State, Is the Linch Pin for Global Engagement

2012 Robert Steele: Reflections on the US Military — Redirection Essential — and a Prerequisite to Creating a 450-Ship Navy, a Long-Haul Air Force, and an Air-Liftable Army

2012 U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century: 450-Ship Navy, <24 Hours to Anywhere, Peace from the Sea — Full Text Online

The Winners and Losers of Next Year's Defense Budget

What was cut and what was spared in Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's budget-request preview.

The blade hasn't fallen yet, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel raised the ax Monday when he offered a sneak peek of the Pentagon's planned budget for next year.

The Pentagon is asking Congress for $496 billion, $45 billion less than it originally expected. Tucked inside that budget trimming are a host of winners—programs and priorities that the department kept safe from cuts—and losers who will not be spared.

Nothing in Hagel's plan, however, is definite. Congress still controls the purse strings, and the Pentagon's fiscal 2015 request will undoubtedly be changed as members and defense lobbyists use their pull to protect their priorities—and try to shovel the spending pain to someone else.

But it could be harder to get off the chopping block than to stay off of it. Here's what got a head start Monday and what got left behind.

LOSERS:

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Winners and Losers in DoD Budget”