Thursday, January 6, 2011

Slashing the defense budget

The Slatest:
"Defense Secretary Robert Gates presented his proposed defense budget Thursday, unveiling the most significant proposed cuts to military spending since Sept. 11. Gates called for the military to cut $78 billion in program spending and reduce personnel by 70,000 over the next five years. Most of those cuts wouldn't be felt for years, and the reduction in troop size (a loss of about 49,000 Army soldiers and 20,000 Marines) wouldn't begin until the U.S. starts to draw down its presence in Afghanistan next year. At a press conference Thursday, Gates cast the cuts as a matter of national security: 'This country's dire fiscal situation and the threat it poses to American influence and credibility around the world will only get worse unless the U.S. government gets its finances in order,' he said. 'My hope is what had been a culture of endless money will become a culture of savings and restraint.'"

And we'll still have the scariest, most-expensive armed forces in the world.

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