The prospect of deeper cuts at the Defense Department and other parts of the national security-related budget is getting closer to reality. On Monday, Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma proposed $1 trillion in cuts at the Defense Department over ten years. The so-called ‘Gang of Six’ bipartisan group of Senators have recommended trimming $866 billion off of the discretionary defense budget over ten years. And today, my group, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), and Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) have thrown their set of national security proposals in the hat as well. The POGO/TCS plan called “Spending Less, Spending Smarter” would lead to $586 billion in deficit reduction and ranges from cancellation of bloated Department of Defense weapon systems to cuts in U.S. troop levels in the wealthy countries in Europe to a 15 percent reduction in the use of national security-related service contracting to the elimination of unneeded Energy Department nuclear weapons-related building projects.
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Latest on Battleland
Only One Year of U.S.-Led Fighting Left
President Obama’s goal at the NATO summit this week is looking increasingly clear: wrap up U.S. troops’ combat role over the coming year, and get the allies to pay more money to enable the Afghan military to fill the gap.
House Pushes for East Coast Missile Shield
The House has approved a $643 billion defense-spending bill for 2013 that’s $3.7 billion more than the Obama Administration, and its Pentagon, is seeking. That’s just about the same amount the Congressional Budget Office estimates the House bill’s push for an East Coast missile shield will cost over the next five years.
The Pentagon’s “Washington Monument Strategy”
Whenever federal bureaucrats running the nation’s parks get antsy that their purse is likely to shrink, they roll out something long known as the “Washington Monument strategy.” That’s the tried-and-true technique of warning the public that if money isn’t forthcoming, one of the first budget cuts will force the shutting down of the popular obelisk to Washington, D.C., tourists.
