Impending Military Spending Freeze
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

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.

This Story
Gates wants to drop $14 billion Marine landing-craft program
Pentagon to cut spending by $78 billion, reduce troop strength
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.

The Pentagon will see a short-term boost in its budget next year to about $554 billion, excluding the cost of fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. After that, however, annual spending increases will dwindle until they flatten completely in 2015 and 2016, with no extra money beyond the rate of inflation.

As a result, Gates said, the Army will cut the number of soldiers on active duty by 27,000 and the Marines by 10,000 to 15,000. Those trims will not take place until 2015, which is when Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged that his country's armed forces will take the lead responsibility for security there.

There are currently about 202,000 Marines on active duty, up from 175,000 in 2007. The Army has about 569,000 soldiers on active duty, including a temporary boost of 22,000 forces that will lapse separately in 2014.

If folks remember......
 

If folks remember back before 2007. Think back, all the Dem's were crying big tears for the troops. All the stretched to thin stuff. The R's used that to pound away and get the few extra thousand troops we have now.

We talked about it here. You can't snap your fingers and Shazam - there's a full up Brigade ready to go to war.

Just think of all the money we could save if we disband all the Military and just send the welfare folks to fight when needed. Hmmmm. Maybe a new class of surrender monkeys - let the enemy feed them.

Reminds me of an old Gaelic saying, about not having them in peace and you will not have them in war. But what do I know? I'm in high school and they are college graduate politicians :)

Knowing how efficient and thrifty the DOD is, I'm sure it will be quite difficult to find any areas of unnecessary or wasteful spending that could be readily identified and trimmed from their budget.

Richard

They could start with that slush fund Obama set up and hasn't spent and leave the Military alone.

Cute, since the only department I have seen volunteer to cut their budget is DoD.

Why doesn't everyone else cowboy up and take a 10-20% cut out of their budget?

TR

TR,

That will be the day!.........:rolleyes: The 2nd coming of Jesus will happen "before" they would ever consider what you just purposed.........:eek: The D's and R's wouldn't even consider it.............;)

Big Teddy :munchin

Well, if you will remember Gates tried to reduce a unneeded military unit in Virginian and all the Virginia politicians of both parties turned out as we predicted to object to it. Budget cuts are only good when it is some one else's donkey in the ditch.

if anyone doesn't remember the thread I can go searching around for it.

I guess we will also be getting lots of jet engines that are not needed because it is patriotic to have lots of jet engines that don't have an aircraft to go into.

Will never happen voluntarily.........

DOJ was cut 18% across the board, we are going to be doing cases on bikes next. Guess Homeland Security needed to pay for some more toys that do not work.

This was released today:

DOD Announces $150 Billion Reinvestment from Efficiencies Savings

http://www.defense.gov/releases/rele...eleaseid=14178

That totals $98 Billion Army/Navy/Air Force

It's like the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show:

"Hey, Rocky...watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRW7p...eature=related

But I wouldn't discount Gates' political acumen in all this:

The plan also identifies a separate $100 billion in savings, including the cancellation of a $14 billion amphibious Marine vehicle. But here's the catch: The Marines, like the other military services, will be able to plow a lot of the savings into other programs; they'll upgrade their current amphibious vehicle.

"My sense is that he's actually pulled off one of the great Houdini acts of our time," said Kori Schake, who served on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. "What Gates has actually done is move $100 billion from his existing budget to his existing budget."

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/06/132712...on-from-budget

And so it goes...

Richard :munchin