Tag: Department of Defense
The Mania for Austerity Finally Hits the Military
You’ve been hearing this week about SecDef Chuck Hagel’s proposed budget for the DOD for FY15. This budget reduced the number of active duty troops, reduces the number of reserve troops, reduces salary increases, requires uniformed staff to contribute more to their health care, reduces retirement benefits and focuses growth in cybersecurity and in Special Forces. It looks to re-orient the Pentagon’s focus on being prepared for two land wars to dealing with current threats of terrorism. And this budget looks as though it accomodates some continued sequestration as well as real spending reduction. Remember as you hear more about this budget that if the US gets out of Afghanistan at the end of this year (as planned), the US won’t be engaged in regular ground wars anywhere. From the WaPo:
The Pentagon Being Asked to Tighten Its Belt — Finally
This is good news — this is Not Enough — but this is genuinely a good direction.
According to the NYT today, SecDef Robert Gates is asking the entire DOD to find billions of dollars in cuts to help fund the wars that they are in:
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