Posts Tagged ‘defense spending’
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Here’s a look at some of this week’s most interesting, and consequential, budget- and economy-related issues in the 50 states:
The Virginian Pilot reported last week that for 12 years, a government employee in Norfolk, VA drew pay and benefits without a day on the job.
Late last week, the Denver Post called for a balanced budget amendment, saying “reckless spending by both parties has left Americans with an unsustainable $13 trillion federal debt, which is still getting “rapidly worse.’”
Jim Kelly argues in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that we need to cut more than just defense spending. “We’re in a fiscal emergency. We have to watch what we spend even on vitally important things. So the question isn’t why cut defense spending? It’s why cut only defense spending?”
In an editorial, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette laments the sad state of the economy and the inability of lawmakers to generate solutions. “A worrisome part of the problem is the government doesn’t seem to know what to do to end the suffering.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the increase in federal funds received by Ohio in 2009 outpaced the national average. Across the country, federal domestic spending increased 16%. Ohio saw a 19% increase in federal dollars compared to 2008.
According to the New York Times, state tax revenues increased 2.2% in the second quarter of 2010. “The greatest year-over-year growth in percentage terms was in Alaska, where revenues shot up 106.3 percent.”
Tags: defense spending, economy, Government Spending, new york times, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, state news, State news roundup
Posted in Blog, Government Spending, Latest News | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
National security is among the most important roles of the federal government. This does not mean, however, that we should completely abstain from questioning the size of its budget. As we have reported on several occasions, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been one of the most outspoken critics of his own department’s budget. Today, the Huffington Post has a thoughtful piece about the debate over government overspending on defense and whether Secretary Gates’ proposals will bring about meaningful reform:
Military spending is moving to the forefront of Washington policy prattle. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates got headlines early this week when he proposed some changes in command structures along with other organization adjustments which in aggregate could save billions of dollars over five years. Skeptics saw the initiative as a ploy to take the steam out of rising concern for the spiral in defense spending at a time of heightened anxiety over long-term budget deficits. In truth, Gates’ cost cutting measures would just nibble around the edge of our vast military establishment, replenished each year by $750 – 800 billion (including ad hoc Iraq/Afghanistan appropriations). For example, he talks of a 30 percent reduction in the number of contractors but is unable to tell Congress how many the Pentagon employs in total — even without counting the 150,000 or so who serve as hired help in our two wars. He foresees defense spending actually going up in real terms — just by a somewhat lesser amount due to his projected cuts.
Tags: Defense Department, defense spending, Government Spending, huffington post, military spending, Robert Gates, secretary of defense, spending cuts
Posted in Blog, Government Spending, Latest News | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
As we have reported before, Robert Gates, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, has come out in support of trimming his department’s budget over the long run. Today, the Associated Press reports that Gates is pressuring his department to live within its means.
“The department must start setting priorities, making real trade-offs and separating appetites from real requirements,” Gates said.
Gates vowed to review every corner of the budget, including the military’s rising health care costs.
“There are no sacred cows,” Gates said.
Besides shutting down Joint Forces Command, Gates wants to:
- Trim by 10 percent the budget for contractors who support the Defense Department;
- Freeze the number of employees working for his office, defense agencies and combatant commands for the next three years; and
- Cut at least 50 general and flag officer positions and 150 senior civilian executive positions over the next two years.
Other departments could certainly learn a thing or two from Secretary Gates. Unfortunately, today Washington will be engaged in belt-loosening, not tightening, as Congress is set to vote this afternoon on a measure that will cost taxpayers $26 billion.
Tags: AP, Defense Department, defense spending, Government Overspending, Government Spending, Robert Gates, spending cuts
Posted in Blog, Government Spending, Latest News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
The House and Senate are going on vacation again in a few weeks and that means a big push to get things done before they do.
It also means lots of new spending.
The Hill reports today the Senate is set to vote on more than $100 billion in new spending this week. That figure includes $34 billion to extend unemployment benefits and $81.3 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tags: bankrupting america, Congress, defense spending, Government Overspending, Government Spending, Senate, The Hill, unemployment benefits
Posted in Blog, Government Spending, Latest News | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Last Month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke in Abilene, Kansas seeking to bring attention to the “gusher” of defense spending, largely related to the Pentagon’s budget. Here is an excerpt from Gates’s speech:
“The attacks of September 11th, 2001, opened a gusher of defense spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade, not counting supplemental appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which brings us to the situation we face and the choices we have today – as a defense department and as a country. Given America’s difficult economic circumstances and parlous fiscal condition, military spending on things large and small can and should expect closer, harsher scrutiny. The gusher has been turned off, and will stay off for a good period of time.”
On June 11th, 2010 a report from the Sustainable Defense Task Force, which is composed of Barney Frank (D, MA) appointees, outlined a variety of recommendations. Gates and Frank are in accordance over making cuts to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, but Congress and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) don’t appear to agree over all suggested $1T in cuts.
Larry Korb, a defense expert with the Center for American Progress who also participated in the Sustainable Debt Taskforce, is in accordance with Gates, remains skeptical of the cuts. From today’s Politico:
“So far, Gates’s plan to cut overhead costs just scratches the surface,” he said. The key issues are the ones Gates raised in speeches in Kansas and to the Navy League last month, including questioning the size of the aircraft carrier fleet and the need for the Marines’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. “Those are the questions you’ve got to deal with,” Korb said.
Other leaders in Washington should follow Gates’s lead and look for any and all possible spending cuts.
Tags: bankrupting america, Defense Department, defense spending, Government Spending, OMB, Pentagon, Robert Gates, spending cuts, waste, wasteful spending
Posted in Blog, Government Spending, Issues | No Comments »
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Few in Washington stand up and say, “Congress, we have enough money. Please cut our budget!” So it deserves particular applause when a leader has the courage to identify waste and ask for reductions.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently did just that when he called on Congress to cut as much as $15 billion from the Pentagon’s budget and eliminate several weapons programs that he thought were no longer optimal. Gates recognizes that resources may need to shift to other areas—for weapons modernization programs and the general military capacity in our war theaters, Afghanistan and Iraq. Priorities need to be set so that money is available for what’s really needed in the future.
Yet it’s hardly a surprise that instead of receiving well-deserved applause from all those self-proclaimed deficit hawks in Congress, Sec. Gates has instead faced resistance. Congress is insisting on funding weapons programs and providing raises that the Defense Secretary believes aren’t necessary. Gates directly confronted the illogic approach Members of Congress are using to justify overspending.
As the Washington Post reported:
“One of the members of Congress, I’m told, said, ‘Well, why is $3 billion for the alternative engine such a big deal when we’ve got a trillion-dollar deficit?’ I would submit that’s one of the reasons we have a trillion-dollar deficit, is that kind of thinking,” Gates told reporters this month. “And so we’re not just going to roll over to preserve programs that we think we don’t need, regardless of where the pressure is coming from.”
In spite of the Secretary’s laudable stance, The House Armed Services Committee passed their defense-spending bill on Wednesday anyway, in a bipartisan manner voting 59-0, defying the Obama Administration’s requests. The spending measure, which carries an overall price tag of $760 billion, includes spending for the controversial alternative engine for the F-35 strike fighter – an engine Sec. Gates has clearly stated the military does not need.
The spending measure also increases military pay by 1.9%, a full half percentage point more than the Obama Administration and Defense Department had requested. According to Congressional Quarterly, “If the raise is enacted, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of that increase at $2.39 billion more than planned over the next five years.”
Sec. Gates, who has served under both a Republican and Democrat Presidents, seems better positioned to know what planes and weapon systems make the most sense for the military. Congress should respect his request and cut this wasteful spending. It is far better to preserve resources now so that our military has them when it really needs them.
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Tags: bankrupting america, budget, budget cuts, budget deficit, Defense Department, defense spending, Government Spending, Robert Gates
Posted in Blog, Government Spending, Latest News | No Comments »
Monday, March 1st, 2010
As Congress returns to the Hill this week, there are a few hearings we’ll be paying particular attention to.
On Wednesday, the House Budget Committee hosts their annual “Members’ Day.” Members’ Day allows members to appear before the committee to make comments on the FY2011 budget and air out their thoughts, concerns or grievances about the legislation.
On Thursday, both the House and Senate Budget Committees will hear testimonies from Defense Department officials. William Lynn, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Robert Hale, the Under Secretary of Defense, will appear before the committees to discuss the Department of Defense’s FY2011 budget request.
All House and Senate Budget Committee hearings are available to watch live online.
Tags: 2011 budget, budget, budget committee, Congress, defense spending, house budget committee, senate budget committee
Posted in Blog, Front Page | No Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
We’ve gotten a lot of questions about government spending since President Obama’s budget came out on February 1st. One re-occurring question is the following: Haven’t spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and on homeland security been a major cause of our surging debt?
There is no doubt that national security is expensive – it cost $782 billion in 2009, $2,500 per American. This is 22% of the $3.5 trillion spent by the federal government last year. The rest of the budget is comprised of non-security discretionary spending and entitlement spending (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security).
Contrary to popular belief, defense spending was not the foremost factor for the national debt increasing $2.5 trillion under President Bush. Only 40 percent of new spending under President Bush was on defense and homeland security – not a trivial number but a smaller percent than most people think.
What may really surprise you (it surprised us) is that Barack Obama is spending more on defense than George W. Bush did, according to a recent article in The Economist.
People will disagree over how the government should spend money. But in our disagreements, let’s make sure we first know how much money is going where. We are facing record deficits for multiple reasons. Defense spending is one of the reasons but not the primary one.
If looking for places to cut spending, you have plenty to choose from.
Tags: budget, debt, defense spending, deficit, government, homeland security, spending
Posted in Blog, Government Spending | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
At first glance former President Bush and President Obama seem like opposites when it comes to economic policy making. Talk of Bush as a free-marketeer and deregulator abounds as Obama’s reputation as a big spender and intervener grow stronger by the day. A closer look shows their economic policies have more in common than meets the eye.
5. They love to spend. Bush passed a $3 trillion budget for 2009. Obama posted a $3.5 trillion budget in 2010. Bush doubled the debt to almost $6 trillion and Obama’s plans would leave us with an IOU of an additional $8.5 trillion by 2020.
4. They shop at the same stores. Contrary to popular belief, defense and homeland security spending only made up about 40 percent of Bush’s new spending. He increased spending across most non-defense categories – like education, Medicare, Medicaid, income security and regional development – by four to six times the rate of inflation. In Obama’s first half year in office, as he demanded a departure from the “investment deficit” years under Bush, these budgets rose another 70 percent or 40 times the rate of inflation.
3. They dabble with stimulants. In 2001 and 2008, Bush spent billions on rebates to stimulate consumer spending. In 2009, Obama upped the ante with his $862 billion stimulus package.
2. They give sweetheart deals to failing corporations. Obama carried out Bush’s unpopular $700 billion bailout for failing corporations. Together, the presidents have bailed out over 600 businesses since Spring 2008.
1. They enjoy regulating in their free time. Once again contrary to popular belief, President Bush was the biggest regulator since Richard Nixon. Under his leadership in 2007, the number of pages of regulation added to the Federal Register reached an all-time high of 78,090 – a 21 percent increase from Bush’s first year. And spending on regulatory activities rose to $42 billion in 2009 – a 62 percent increase. Since taking office, Obama has proposed a large and sweeping increase in regulation that many worry could lead to another financial crisis in the future.
Despite rhetoric that suggests the contrary, President Obama’s economic policies are strikingly more of the same failed policies that Bush tried before him. This is unfortunate because, as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman claims, the last decade has seen declining private-sector employment and declining median household income.
Tags: Bush, Corporate Welfare, decade of zero, defense spending, Federal Register, investment deficit, Obama, Paul Krugman, regulation, stimulus spending
Posted in Blog, Corporate Welfare, Government Overspending, Government Spending, Rules and Regulations, The Administration | 10 Comments »
