CSBA in the News

Whether or not America’s politicians can find a way to sidestep the brutal automatic military cuts of sequestration, the era of rising Western spending on weapons and wars is over.

Listen to the Story

Last month’s congressionally mandated OMB report on the impact of sequestration omitted an obscure provision that would slice another $10.1 billion from Defense Department programs in 2013. Because of that the Pentagon would have to cut $60.6 billion instead of $50.5 billion, a 20 percent increase.

The Pentagon will move to protect major weapon programs, including those locked into fixed-price procurement deals, should mandatory U.S. government spending cuts go into effect under sequestration in January.

The Obama administration is unlikely to make payments to defense contractors to cover severance costs caused by across-the-board Pentagon cuts, according to defense analysts.

Todd Harrison of the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a non-partisan think-tank in Washington, estimates that from 2013 to 2022 Mr Romney’s commitment would add up to $2.3 trillion of additional expenditure. If the increases were made gradually during Mr Romney’s first term, as Romney officials suggest, the figure would come down to $2 trillion. Mr Harrison points out that the base defence budget has not been 4% of GDP since 1992, in the aftermath of the cold war. Even during the administration of George W. Bush, defence spending “only” went from 2.9% of GDP in 2001 to 3.7% in 2009. Over the past 20 years the base defence budget has averaged 3.3% of GDP. Mr Harrison says: “What you spend on defence really should be a function of your security needs, what you think the threat environment is and what you think you need to protect the country. It shouldn’t be a formula based on the size of your economy.”