At a time when budgets are tight, and programs and services in our community are being cut back, the Pentagon budget keeps getting bigger.
The secretary of defense announced on Jan. 26 that he plans to slow the rate of growth for the Pentagon budget, but even under this proposal in 10 years the Pentagon budget would still be bigger than it is today.
I hope that our members of Congress (Sens. Kyl and McCain) will stick with the current law, which requires the Pentagon to cut its budget by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade - twice what the secretary is proposing.
Over the last decade, the Pentagon budget has grown by 100 percent. Some of that growth was to pay for the wars, but a lot of it went right into the Pentagon budget. Right now, we are all having to cut back. The Pentagon should have to as well.
Beverly Janowitz-Price
Phoenix
Dale Whiting posted at 5:36 pm on Tue, Jan 31, 2012.
As I've said on this cite time and time again, the Pentagon's budget needs to be trimmed back for two reasons. First, it's too big. Second, it got too big by doing dumb things around the world which have had the effect of making us less safe, not safer. It's time to study war no more!
samkat posted at 7:53 pm on Tue, Jan 31, 2012.
As I have said on this site before, the military needs to be strong enough enough to defend us when the occasion arises.
sockratties posted at 3:10 pm on Wed, Feb 1, 2012.
Typical complaints about lowering defense spending tend to be that the number of units, i. e. ships or planes is reduced compared to previous numbers. They forget that one modern fighter or ship has 50 or more times the destructive force of those of the Korean or Vietnam era. The military-industrial complex spends a lot of money to keep unnecessary contracts coming.
It's a lot like when Ronald Reagan announced that there were more trees in national forests (when he appointed James Watt who was anti-environment as Secretary of the Interior) than when the U.S. was first founded. Well, duh... there were only 13 states.
The defense department needs to be returned to its function as a DEFENSE department. It shouldn't be construed as a WAR department that is used by special interests to obtain privilege and leverage.
Thousands of troops in bases around the world do not defend us when the occasion arises. They support dictators and suppressive governments that allow our special interests (oil, minerals, access) to do business there. These installations are another form of foreign aid that is paid out of the defense budget. The defense budget even pays to build American embassies in other countries. They should be part of the State Department budget.
truth posted at 3:20 pm on Wed, Feb 1, 2012.
The Pentagon's buget is around 700 billion a year, the next highest is China 1.5 billion, no other country in the world is above 1 billion.
Dale Whiting posted at 3:46 pm on Wed, Feb 1, 2012.
So if we cut the Pentagon's budget by 50 %, we would still be outspending China by 350 times! Wow, that's remarkable!