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Panel Recommends Nearly $1 Trillion in "Defense" Cuts
WASHINGTON - A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon’s budget during the next 10 years.
An Ohio-class nuclear submarine. The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a commission of scholars from a broad ideological spectrum appointed by Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, laid out actions the government could take that could save as much as $960 billion between 2011 and 2020.
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The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a commission of scholars
from a broad ideological spectrum appointed by Frank, the House Financial
Services Committee chairman, laid out actions the government could take that
could save as much as $960 billion between 2011 and 2020.
Measures presented by the task force include making significant reductions to the F-35
Joint Strike Fighter program, which has strong support from Defense Secretary
Robert Gates; delaying the procurement of a new midair refueling tanker
the Air Force has identified as one of its top acquisition priorities; and
reducing the Navy’s fleet to 230 ships instead of the 313 eyed by the service.
Shipbuilding has strong support in the congressional defense committees, which write the Pentagon bills. Efforts to reduce the number of ships would run into resistance from the Pentagon and the shipbuilding lobby.
Frank
on Friday warned that if he can’t convince Congress to act in the
“general direction” of the task force recommendation, “then every other
issue will suffer.” Not cutting the Pentagon's budget could lead to
higher taxes and spending cuts detrimental to the environment, housing
and highway construction.
The acceptance of the
recommendations would depend on a “philosophical change" and a
“redefinition of the strategy,” Frank said at press conference on
Capitol Hill.
He said the creation of the deficit reduction
commission offers the best opportunity for the reduction
recommendations. Frank wants to convince his colleagues to write to the
deficit reduction commission and warn that they would not approve any
of the plans suggested by the commission unless reduction of military
spending is included.
The task force has looked at various options to trim the Pentagon’s budget in
order to reduce the deficit. Those include a reduction in Army and Marine
Corps end-strength by cutting back on personnel stationed in Europe and Asia;
and rolling back Army and Marine Corps personnel as the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan end.
The panel also looked into reforming military compensation, which could save
about $55 billion; saving $60 billion by reforming the military healthcare
system; and reducing recruiting expenditures once the wars wind down to preserve
about $5 billion.
All of these recommendations would be expected to engender congressional opposition.
The task force also suggested canceling the V-22 Osprey program and the Marine Corps’s troubled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.
The U.S. nuclear arsenal would also be on the chopping block, under the panel’s suggestions.
The task force recommends reducing the U.S. nuclear warhead total to 1,050.
Launchers would include 160 Minuteman missiles and seven Ohio-class submarines with 24 missiles (each with five warheads).
The panel also recommends retiring the Air Force bombers — “the bomber leg of the nuclear triad,” which includes land-based missiles and nuclear submarines — and ending work on the Trident II missile.
Frank acknowledged Friday that making cuts to the military’s healthcare system, known as Tricare, would be a “non-starter” with his congressional colleagues. But he said that suggestions on how to handle the nuclear arsenal and missile defense could get a “great deal” of support on the Hill.
Frank requested the creation of the task force in cooperation with Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The Project on Defense Alternatives coordinated the work of the task force, which included the following members: Carl Conetta, Project on Defense Alternatives; Benjamin Friedman, Cato Institute; William Hartung, New America Foundation; Christopher Hellman, National Priorities Project; Heather Hurlburt, National Security Network; Charles Knight, Project on Defense Alternatives; Lawrence J. Korb, Center for American Progress; Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action; Laicie Olson, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation; Miriam Pemberton, Institute for Policy Studies; Laura Peterson, Taxpayers for Common Sense; Prasannan Parthasarathi, Boston College; Christopher Preble, Cato Institute, and Winslow Wheeler, Center for Defense Information.
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30 Comments so far
Show AllFriends (Quakers) Committee on National Legislation has mounted a campaign to cut the military budget.
"Debits, Deficits & Defense: A Way Forward"
For those who might want to encourage their reps to read it:
http://www.fcnl.org/budget/
Don't crow too much. This amounts to about a 13% annual cut to the MIC's $750B annual budget (which does not include the wars, black ops, DHS and INS budgets, etc). Big deal!
When the MIC budget is reduced by 60% which would still exceed spending by the other top 20 militaristic countries, then we may be on to something.
But waddya expect from Barney Frank?
Barney Frank is taking a first step.
But it is a small, nay, a tiny, step and must be described as such. It is by no means sufficient to change the ways of Empire and the damage Empire is doing both to the world at large and to the state of the United States (the living conditions of most citizens, the infrastructure, the health care system, the schools, the libraries, the environment, et cetera).
But is it a step that might get the largely obtuse heads in Congress used to entertaining the notion of further reductions in the obscene and self-destructive military budget of this country?
nearly one trillion?
not nearly enough.
one trillion over 10 years, thats 100 billion per year
they are still probably spending a trillion a year anyway
military industrial complex profits from wars, so this is an industry that makes sure we always have them
Gee, only 230 ships? Do ya think they'll still be able to rule the planet & attack anyone at any time?
BTW, 1 trillion in ten years is only 100 billion per year, or little more than inflation. Bottom line, one trillion dollars spread over 10 years is chump change.
It's just eyewash, Rep. Franks. Make it a trillion over two years then we'll see the economy improve. Maybe even get some health care. Maybe cut down on classroom size. Maybe provide thousands and thousands of real jobs, not just manufacturing military crap that is basically worthless until it is used to kill people or assist in such acts.
Am I paranoid to think that this initiative is to divert from the "War is Making You Poor" bill being presented by Alan Grayson of Florida? That bill is more open ended and has more potential to build support from various constituencies who are facing drastic cuts. (Schools, public universities, housing subsidies, mass transit, health and so on).
Joe
jclientelle Hello there.
You are perfectly healthy to me do not label your self if you have integrity & tenacity which I think you have. When it gets intolerable for them, I promise you it will, they will than suggest & do just that for you. By than they will need a mighty big clinic a mighty big prison walls with no ends just like England did with Oz land 200 hundred years ago, except they may have to use an other planet for concentration camps.
The gates of the twenty first century R getting jolly small for the empire to get through.
dick & george all you got to do is keep on saying you will do it again.
No terror No torture Just TRUTH.
In Soulidarity.
I know how to prevent unnecessary military expense, including preventing almost all wars. Make the Pentagon funded by property taxes. You will see a wave of diplomacy unleashed like has never been imagined, the military industrial complex made small enough to drown in a bathtub, and the richest 1% of the country turning into our most prominent pacifists.
Great idea Steve,I like your spin on Grover Norquist.
peace
Yes, Steve Greenfield, that is a wonderful idea! I would also like to add a marketing idea and tweak it a bit, you know to get America's attention.
I would like to begin the month of November as, 'The Pentagon Push." ( somewhat like a "surge" but totally up hill.) The military would have almost one month to accomplish their budget. They would be allowed , besides the property tax law, to have one major fund raising event.
I would suggest November 2nd ( Day of the Dead....Dia de los Muertos.) Pentagon officials would be seen EVERYWHERE during this month as they hawked their little candied skullls and skeletons, as a representation of their work, goals and accomplishments.
The national fund raiser would culminate on Thanksgiving Day ( which does change with the years.) The ever popular turkey, would now be replaced with the goose.
Fox Views, of course, would air this national telethon of the "sweet skulls," and property tax event. As Americans sat mesmerized with forks poised, a drum roll would commence, and as the total amount of budget raised was tabulated, the Fox talking head would announce in "grave ' and senatorial tones, " Pentagon, your goose is cooked!"
Ah, the spolis of war...but at least Americans could once again, eat, and very possibly eat in their very own homes.
Go for it Steve Greenfield. You are the man, whose idea has come!
We no longer need an Ohio-class submarine capable of breaking through the polar ice to set off Armageddon. All the ice is melting. What's left is so weak, it's easy to break through.
The real story: the money is gone. There's nothing left. China isn't lending us money any more, and is withdrawing $12 billion per month in loans to the U.S.
The Pentagon, including the black budget, is most of our government. There's nothing else left to cut. We're a superpower in a world where a bad war will kill every one of us. So we have to pick on heroin cartels. Rather, we have to defend heroin cartels against people who don't like them. China isn't calling us a paper tiger now because they already know that we are one now. We will have to fund every possible future war on hallucinatory resources because we don't have real resources.
And remember Congress funds big ticket military junk items that the Pentagons tells Congress it does not even want.
"Panel Recommends Nearly $1 Trillion In "Defence" Cuts."
my comment
HA HA HA HA HA AH HA HA HE HE HE HE HE HA AH GO HOO HOO
CHUCKLE COUGH.
That was my immediate reaction too....
Ditto--all bluster, no action.
"The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a commission of scholars from a broad ideological spectrum appointed by Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, laid out actions the government could take that could save as much as $960 billion between 2011 and 2020"
Hilarious! We see that Godzilla tries to co-opt or displace our common sense, so that instead of relying on our common sense understanding of things, we should defer to Godzilla, who is "taking care of things" for us. Doesn't this make you roll all over the floor laughing?
Godzilla's "scholars"!!! How crazy is that? The monster ultimately is driven not by reason or logic, but by its lust for domination! So the idea of "scholars" looking into things is only concocted to twist the people's attention away from their very own c-o-m-m-o-n s-e-n-s-e.
And the people's task at hand is to embrace their own common sense and demand common sense policies. This means no to the monster. No to the monster's "scholars". No to the monster's "sustainable defense" <- hilarious joke
Of course, the people feed the monster not because they are really happy about their subjugation to it, but because they are addicted to the monster's opiates and trapped in the rat wheels.
It's time for the people to break out, and find their common sense. Then the monster will "vanish like evil spirits in the dawn of day".
Good Luck. Really. Oil and Death must be two of the strongest lobbies (extremist anti-democratic forces) in DC.
How about the rube-goldbergian F-22, at $300 million apiece, or the platinum-plated F-35, a bargain at a mere $200 million apiece? Or that weird Navy coastal attack boat that cost $1 billion apiece? All this crap is just designed to provide make-work jobs and pad the dividends of rich stockholders.
Ironically, even with our mind-boggling level of military spending, it's very possible we might lose our next battle with a developed -- or even semi-developed -- nation, because our weapons are so dependent on electronic bells and whistles. Other countries, such as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc., have developed asymmetrical weapons that are cheap but effective. (That cheap torpedo that destroyed a modern South Korean ship is a good example.) I suppose it will be necessary for the U.S. to get its butt kicked at least once to prompt a serious change of direction in the Pentagon and Congress. I hope it doesn't happen but wouldn't be surprised if it does.
won't happen.
remember Vietnam?
nothing learned except not to draft kids.
Gates has already stated that there a need to cut spending on "Big Ticket" items so that the USA can fight more wars.
This is not a proposed cut. It merely a reallocation of funds from the construction of weapon systems that are useless to more funds to actively KILL people.
I would rather the USA piss away another trillion dollars on the latest and greatest "Death Star" then spend a trillion dropping bombs on women and children in Afghanistan.
Astonishingly, this is a modest cut.
Brigadier General Smedley Butler had it right, restrict the US Navy to within two hundred miles of the US coastline and restrict the Air Force to within five hundred miles of the coastline for reconnaisance purposes only. One restriction that would work very well would be to weld shut all of the inflight refueling recepticals on all Air Force, Navy and Marine Corp. fighter aircraft!
Then cancel the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, this country should have no use for a stealth, first strike fighter aircraft! (Unless, of course, you plan on starting more wars!)
Z1,Cool, that would kill 3 birds with one stone(sic),foreign bases would have to close.I think your rules would ground all the Carrier groups too.Just think of the reduction in global petrolium usage alone,that could be a big chunk of the $ Trillion.The MIC needs a short leash for their 'big stick".(Unless THEY plan on starting more wars!)
peace
Wasn't it also General Butler who said that war is a racket? I think so and that has been the cause of most of the "conflicts" we have been in since WWII. Money, big money and of course the pork and jobs that the racket produces.
From the article:
"Measures presented by the task force include making significant reductions to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which has strong support from Defense Secretary Robert Gates;..."
What is it that Gates supports, the program itself, or reductions to it?
The question is relevant since we know that the Congress supports "defense" programs the Defense Dept. doesn't. It's called PORK.
Winslow Wheeler, mentioned in the article, could answer this.
-30-
Cutting a trillion over ten years would help but not as much as, among other things, troops out now and closing out 700+ overseas militrary bases, nationalizing banking, finance and energy resources along with establishing a single payer health system. All of which are out of reach on account of the custom-built system that the founding fathers created to protect their class interests. Which leaves us with two options; namely, we concede to ourselves that we're at the end of history but keep up the appearance of trying to change the system (see Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange") or we rise up en masse and actually change it. Right now we're going by the "Clockwork Orange" formula*, the proof of which is that although perpetual war + global warming = doomsday, here we are the self-annointed and totally ineffective opposition. What it amounts to is that we delude ourselves into believing that what we're doing is better than doing nothing, when, in fact, it's worse than doing nothing. Worse, because it's a substitute for the real thing!
*en route to a reprise of "On The Beach".