CSBA in the News

In an era of government belt-tightening, support appears to be growing for reining in the spiraling expense of military healthcare. In recommendations to the budget-cutting congressional “super committee” in September, President Barack Obama proposed two steps to offset rising military healthcare costs/…/

The chiefs of the U.S. military said they may have to end new weapons programs, close bases and cut civilian personnel as early as next year if Congress allows about $1 trillion in defense cuts during the next decade.  The heads of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, in testimony today before the House Armed Services Committee, joined Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in warning against the reductions.

In the 1961 farewell speech where President Eisenhower made the “military-industrial complex” famous, Ike was going to add “Congressional” and struck it out minutes before he spoke, according to his military aide, Brig Gen Andrew Goodpaster. Goodpaster, who died in 2005, made the observation in a 1993 interview, according to a new report by Barry Watts and Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, “Sustaining Critical Sectors of the US Defense Industrial Base”.

For the past 10 years, the United States has engaged in constant warfare. Does that mean the next 10 years will be the same, even after U.S. combat troops are out of Iraq and Afghanistan? Put it a different way: We have spent trillions of dollars to create the most professional and powerful military force in the world to fight those wars. It continues to cost hundreds of billions more each year to help sustain this all-volunteer force.

The Pentagon’s estimated budget has more than doubled to $676 billion in the past 10 years because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defense represents about 18% of total U.S. spending for fiscal 2012.