Tag: military spending

Obama’s New Military Strategy Doesn’t Add Up

President Barack Obama ordered up yet another strategic review last year. This one explicitly aimed at bringing the nation’s military posture into line with something we can afford. In response to that review, his administration forged a plan [.pdf], unveiled during the first week of the year, that takes a few modest steps in the … Continue reading “Obama’s New Military Strategy Doesn’t Add Up”

The Myth of Military Budget Cuts

Last week, President Obama unveiled what is being touted as a new defense strategy intended to drive reductions in the defense budget (the first time a president held a press conference at the Pentagon). According to the president: As I made clear in Australia, we will be strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific, and … Continue reading “The Myth of Military Budget Cuts”

Cut the Pentagon’s Budget, Make the US Safer

Pressured by the need to shrink the federal budget deficit, Congress is insisting that Pentagon spending can’t continue to grow at the galloping rate of the last decade. In response, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress in October that he’s planning to cut $450 billion in planned military spending increases. We shouldn’t stop at $450 … Continue reading “Cut the Pentagon’s Budget, Make the US Safer”

All Hail the Failure of the Supercommittee

The supercommittee of Republicans and Democrats has failed to come up with ways to reduce the federal budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. Even though $1.2 trillion dollars seems like a lot, it pales in comparison to the whopping accumulated national debt of $15 trillion, which is dragging the economy into … Continue reading “All Hail the Failure of the Supercommittee”

Nuclear Turkeys

By the time you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, the 12-member congressional supercommittee will have succeeded in meeting its Nov. 23 deadline to approve a plan to shrink the budget deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Or it will have failed and produced a turkey instead. The entire government is subject … Continue reading “Nuclear Turkeys”

Hawks Lose It Over Supercommittee

Mass hysteria in Washington over the possibility of real belt-tightening for the Department of Defense reached a fever pitch this week when the secretary of defense suggested the country could be attacked if Congress cut his budget. If the so-called supercommittee fails to come up with the prescribed deficit-reduction measures by Turkey Day, then it … Continue reading “Hawks Lose It Over Supercommittee”

Closing Overseas Bases Is Good Policy and Good Politics

It has been like a cross between a suspense and a horror movie. If the committee doesn’t come up with a compromise by the Thanksgiving deadline, the axes will come out. Perhaps only Washington insiders appreciate the suspense. As for the horror part, the blood will flow only later and largely out of sight of … Continue reading “Closing Overseas Bases Is Good Policy and Good Politics”

Defending Bloated Military Spending

The Association of the United States Army packed hundreds of exhibitors into two halls the size of football fields at its annual convention. Companies from around the world came to the event, recently held at the Washington Convention Center, to sell the Army everything from mammoth tanks to micro-thin wires. Corporations such as Raytheon and … Continue reading “Defending Bloated Military Spending”

Clueless Republicans Demand More Militarism

While the Republicans who are running for president seem to have grasped the truth about the economic abyss that the country is peering into, there continues to be an air of unreality whenever the discussions turn to foreign policy and national security issues. Perhaps it is fortunate that the leading candidates rarely venture into those … Continue reading “Clueless Republicans Demand More Militarism”

The Congressional ‘Supercommittee’: Debt Panel or Death Panel?

When it comes to government handouts, there’s no bigger welfare queens than the Pentagon and the legions of mercenaries and weapons manufacturers profiting from America’s half-dozen ongoing wars and its global empire of military bases. In fact, more than half of U.S. income taxes are funneled, not to welfare mothers and underprivileged youths, but to what President … Continue reading “The Congressional ‘Supercommittee’: Debt Panel or Death Panel?”