"Analysts say Panetta overplays budget cuts" November 30, 2011|By David Lerman, Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON - To hear Defense Secretary Leon Panetta tell it, the US military is headed for a doomsday scenario in which devastating spending cuts jeopardize the nation’s security....
But such talk is “rhetorical gibberish’’ that exaggerates the impact of what may be modest cuts in relation to the overall level of military spending, said military analyst Winslow Wheeler at the Center for Defense Information, a nonprofit research group in Washington that says it gets no defense industry funding.
Or no cuts at all.
The Defense Department’s total budget, including war spending, more than doubled from $316 billion in fiscal 2001 to $691 billion in fiscal 2010. The Pentagon has requested $671 billion for the current fiscal year....
They got $662 so far.
Actually, I read that the budget was more like $926 billion, so WTF?
Todd Harrison, defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, added that the base defense budget would decrease by 14 percent, adjusted for inflation, from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2013, which begins Oct. 1, 2012....
Your social service cuts aren't adjusted for inflation, dear American.
After fiscal year 2013, defense budgets would “only grow with inflation for the rest of the decade,’’ Harrison said....
Oh, the poor babies!
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Related: Worship War Day: Pentagon Cries Poverty
Yeah, about those "cuts."
"The proposed bill would pay for the war in Afghanistan but give the Pentagon just a 1 percent boost.... GOP defense hawks won additional funding to modernize the US nuclear weapons arsenal. The troubled, over-budget next generation F-35 fighter plane program would be largely protected."
So we MODERNIZE OUR NUKES as we THREATEN ATTACK on IRAN for building a POWER PLANT?! And the F-35 is saved because of Israel?
"Battle-fatigued Congress wrapping up a major spending bill; Trillion-plus plan follows terms laid by Obama, GOP" December 13, 2011|By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
Oh, a battle-fatigued Congress!! I am SO SICK of the INSULTS!!
WASHINGTON - Weary after a year of partisan bickering, lawmakers tried yesterday to wrap up a sprawling $1 trillion-plus spending bill that chips away at military and environmental spending but denies conservatives many of the policy changes they wanted on social issues, government regulations, and health care....
Don't you love being lied to in the first paragraph?
Drafted behind closed doors, the proposed bill would pay for the war in Afghanistan but give the Pentagon just a 1 percent boost in annual spending, while the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget would be cut by 3.5 percent.
The bill also covers everything from money to combat AIDS and famine in Africa, patrolling the US-Mexico border, operations of national parks, and budget increases for veterans’ health care....
The generally smooth, businesslike negotiations on the omnibus spending bill contrast with the ongoing partisan brawl over Obama’s demand that Congress renew extended jobless benefits and a cut in the Social Security payroll tax.
Yeah, because when it is SOMETHING THE PEOPLE WANT and NEED it is like pulling teeth.
The House is slated to vote on a GOP-friendly version of the payroll tax cut today; negotiations with the Democratic-controlled Senate on a compromise bill have not begun.
The spending measure, meanwhile, is likely to upset Tea Party conservatives....
Leadership beginning to make you feel like liberals, 'eh?
Conservative ire is likely to be magnified once the negotiating outcome regarding dozens of GOP policy riders is finalized. Republicans larded the measures with provisions aimed at rolling back Environmental Protection Agency rules, such as regulations on coal ash, large-scale discharges of hot water and greenhouse gases from electric power plants, and emissions from cement plants and oil refineries.
The most controversial riders are expected to be dumped due to opposition from Obama and Democrats controlling the Senate. But Democrats realize that they have to show some flexibility to win GOP votes in the House. That means Democrats are likely to accept, reluctantly, a rider that blocks the city of Washington, D.C., from funding abortions for poor women....
Related: Obama Has Found His Reelection Footing
By stepping on women!!
In addition to the cut in EPA funding, foreign aid spending also would drop and House lawmakers would absorb a 6 percent cut to their office budgets.
On spending, the measure generally consists of relatively small adjustments to thousands of individual programs. Such agencies as the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement will get a boost within the Department of Homeland Security, while GOP defense hawks won additional funding to modernize the US nuclear weapons arsenal. The troubled, over-budget next generation F-35 fighter plane program would be largely protected.
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Also see: War Profiteer Piece of the Pie: F-35 Flying High in the House
