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An Eye-Opening Peek at the Pentagon’s Weird Budget Math
If you've been paying attention, you may have heard that President Obama has pledged to cut $400 billion out of security spending between now and 2023. But what you may not know is that the $400 billion won't be a cut as far as Joe and Jane Taxpayer are concerned.Todd Harrison, Washington's defense-budget wizard, says letting Pentagon spending grow along with inflation, between now and 2023, actually will yield more than the $400 billion in savings Obama is seeking. Keep your eye on the ball here: the $400 billion in cuts aren't cuts as you and I understand them -- they are reductions in the projected future rate of growth. And because defense spending has close to doubled over the past decade -- with future spending increases folded into future budget plans as naturally as dew forms on the morning grass -- the U.S. military finds trimming its future spending to the rate of inflation a near-death experience.
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Why Defense Spending Keeps Rising (Hint: It’s Not Just the Wars)
Despite President Obama's mandate that the defense spending be cut by $400 billion during the next 12 years, the Pentagon has proposed its highest budget adjusted for inflation since World War II – further evidence that the Pentagon is facing many of the budget-busting expenses as Congress itself. Just as Congress considers reining in expenses for Medicare, the Pentagon is struggling with rising health-care costs, as well as congressionally enacted pay raises for servicemen and women.
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Gear Gets To Troops Earlier In ‘Fast Lane’
The Pentagon is speeding up life-saving military gear to troops in Afghanistan under a new "fast lane" system run a by a small group of senior Defense officials and put in place by then-Defense secretary Robert Gates.
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U.S. Air Force’s Bomber Will Be One Aircraft, Not Many
The U.S. Air Force's new Long Range Strike (LRS) family of systems will not consist of multiple aircraft types, as widely believed. Instead, the service will most likely develop a single bomber airframe that will be able to conduct a range of missions, says the service's deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements.
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Special Report: DoD’s Budget Quandary
There’s no end in sight to the apocalyptic tenor of Beltway defense news and, if anything, it could keep getting worse. Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments briefed reporters Monday on his new report on the fiscal 12 defense budget, including DoD’s future prospects, and the outlook for the military-industrial complex is bleak/…/The Pentagon’s long-term problems aren’t insoluble: Harrison outlined what he believes Washington needs to do to weather the buffeting of Austerity America, and included some interesting and innovative concepts along with the now-familiar prescriptions — control requirements, manage well, and follow a strategy. The problems for DoD and America lie in executing what many people agree must be done, but which requires today’s dysfunctional system to work perfectly.
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U.S. Pays A Third More For Defense As In 2001: Analyst
The U.S. military has essentially the same size, force structure and capabilities as it did a decade ago but costs 35 percent more, an independent public policy think tank said on Monday in an analysis of the 2012 defense budget.