defense spending

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Senate Panel OKs Cash for Unwanted Drones, Ships

$604B budget rejects Pentagon cost-cutting plans

(Newser) - With major Pentagon budget cuts looming, the Senate Appropriations Committee has decided to hand the military piles of money for stuff it says it doesn't want. A $604.5 billion defense budget approved by the powerful committee yesterday includes funding for drones, warships, and cargo planes that the Pentagon...

Democrats: We're Not Budging on Defense Cuts

Obama takes hard stance on defense cuts, taxes for wealthy

(Newser) - Democrats are digging in on two controversial points that could reverberate across the economy: The $550 billion in defense cuts kicking in next year and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts for families earning more than $250,000 per year. President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and other top...

GOP Rolls Out Budget With Huge Tax Cuts

There would be just two brackets, with the top at 25%

(Newser) - House Republicans rolled out a new Paul Ryan-penned budget proposal today that calls for a drastic tax-code overhaul, major changes to Medicare and Medicaid, and deep cuts in domestic spending, all while softening a set of automatic defense spending cuts set to hit in January. The budget would scrap our...

China Military Spending to Surge 11.2% in 2012

China now world's No. 2 military, but insists spending only moderate

(Newser) - China will up its defense spending by 11.2% in 2012 to $106.4 billion, citing its unhappiness with the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, reports the AP . China has made double-digit increases to its military spending in all but two of the years since the early 1990s,...

Panetta Plans to Shrink Size of Army, Marines

Defense chief outlines cuts for Pentagon

(Newser) - The Pentagon outlined a plan today for slowing the growth of military spending, including cutting the size of the Army and Marine Corps, retiring older planes, and trimming war costs. It drew quick criticism from Republicans, signaling the difficulty of scaling back defense budgets in an election year. The changes...

We Can Overhaul Our Military-Industrial Complex
We Can Overhaul Our
Military-Industrial Complex
OPINION
Jan 18, 2012 1:51 PM CST

We Can Overhaul Our Military-Industrial Complex

Smaller budgets can lead to leaner procurement process: Arthur Herman

(Newser) - Arthur Herman hopes the move toward smaller defense budgets will end at long last the Pentagon's bloated, wasteful, and outdated method of buying weapons and equipment. The system dates back to the days of "vacuum tubes and hi-fi sets" and it's precisely why an F-18 costs $90...

Obama Unveils 'Leaner,' 'Agile' Military

He wants to shift focus from ground troops to 'irregular warfare'

(Newser) - President Obama officially unveiled his plan for a slimmed-down military with a speech at the Pentagon today, promising that budget cuts and a reduction in conventional ground forces wouldn't harm the nation's security. "Our military will be leaner, but the world must know—the United States is...

Obama Cutting Thousands of Ground Troops

Military no longer expected to be able to fight two wars at once

(Newser) - The US military is going to end up with a lot fewer boots on the ground as a results of cuts included in the debt ceiling deal. As part of the Obama administration's military overhaul , to be unveiled today, air and sea forces will be boosted, but Army and...

Pentagon Readies Blueprint of Slim New Self

And with it, the Obama administration's defense priorities

(Newser) - The White House is poised to unveil its proposal to slim down the military to bring it in line with cuts agreed to in the recent debt ceiling deal, and in so doing give America a sense of Leon Panetta’s vision for the military’s future, the New York ...

Should We Cut &#39;Useless&#39; Defense Spending?
Should We Cut 'Useless' Defense Spending?
Krugman vs. Samuelson
Oct 31, 2011 1:41 PM CDT

Should We Cut 'Useless' Defense Spending?

Paul Krugman and Robert Samuelson both say no, but for different reasons

(Newser) - With the deficit super committee’s deadline looming , debate is raging over whether to cut defense spending. Robert Samuelson calls that urge "dangerous," writing in the Washington Post that military spending is actually down as a percentage of our budget. In recent decades "spending on social programs...

Costly News: US Military's Equipment Is 'Geriatric'

Average F-15 is 25 years old

(Newser) - Precious few Americans drive cars manufactured in 1964—the same isn't true of the US Air Force. The average age of an Air Force plane ranges from 25 years for an F-15 to 47 years for refueling aircraft, the Wall Street Journal reports in a look at a pricey...

Hey, Conservatives: You Want Defense Cuts
 Hey, Conservatives: 
 You Want Defense Cuts 
Fareed Zakaria
Aug 4, 2011 1:35 PM CDT

Hey, Conservatives: You Want Defense Cuts

Fareed Zakaria on the Pentagon's out of control budget

(Newser) - So let’s get this straight: If Congress can’t agree on another $1.5 trillion in budget cuts, half the cuts will automatically come out of defense spending ? “If so, let the guillotine fall,” declares Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post . This is the kind of...

World's 10 Largest Military Powers

US leads the way, by a lot, with China No. 2

(Newser) - In 2010, the countries of the world spent a combined $1.63 trillion on their militaries, according to 24/7 Wall Street . That includes money for weapons, soldiers, and maintaining infrastructure. The US led the way by far with just below $700 billion, more than the other top nine countries combined....

Romesh Ratnesar: Pentagon Budget Must Shrink to Fix Deficit
Face It, Washington:
Defense Budget Must Shrink
OPINION
Apr 11, 2011 12:20 PM CDT

Face It, Washington: Defense Budget Must Shrink

Pentagon's policies 'outdated'; deficit's the biggest threat: Romesh Ratnesar

(Newser) - The latest budget compromise may have resulted in “sweeping” and “historic” cuts, as the White House, Congress, and the media have claimed—yet “not a solitary penny” was cut from defense spending. Instead, spending will break $700 billion in 2011, which happens to be a post-World War...

US Price Tag for Week 1 of Libya Mission: $600M

But money has all come from Pentagon's existing budget

(Newser) - Week one of the United States' intervention in Libya has cost us at least $600 million, according to new data from the Pentagon. That figure includes $268.8 million worth of Tomahawk cruise missiles, tens of thousands of dollars worth of precision guided bombs, and more than $60 million to...

Pentagon's Anti-IED Agency a $17B Failure

Agency's many, many employees haven't delivered the goods

(Newser) - After roadside bombs emerged as insurgents’ weapon of choice in Iraq, the Pentagon in 2006 created an agency to deal with the threat. In the years since, that agency has grown to a whopping 1,900 employees, has spent $17 billion—and has precious little to show for it, according...

Obama to GOP: Don't Make Me Veto Spending Bill

Says GOP proposal goes too far

(Newser) - President Obama issued a formal statement yesterday threatening to veto any spending bill the House GOP devises that doesn’t meet his specifications. “If the president is presented with a bill that undermines critical priorities or national security … the president will veto the bill,” the statement read,...

Pentagon to Slash $100B From Budget

Weapons systems in development to be axed

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates is set to unveil details of some $100 billion in Pentagon spending cuts, sources tell Reuters . The savings, which could be announced as early as Thursday, are expected to include cuts to some weapons programs, including the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, a 40-ton landing craft being developed...

Let's Finally Shrink the 'Military Industrial Complex'
Let's Finally Shrink the
'Military Industrial Complex'
eugene robinson
Nov 16, 2010 12:45 PM CST

Let's Finally Shrink the 'Military Industrial Complex'

Eugene Robinson: Budget realities make it essential

(Newser) - Of all the controversial ideas in the Bowles-Simpson deficit-reduction plan, the "most welcome" is the one about slashing defense spending and at long last taming the infamous military industrial complex, writes Eugene Robinson. He lays the blame for out-of-control spending on Republicans, who talk a good game on small...

US Intel Spending Breaks $80B
 US Intel Spending Breaks $80B  
Oct 29, 2010 8:36 AM CDT

US Intel Spending Breaks $80B

Spending revealed for first time this century

(Newser) - American intelligence spending hit $80.1 billion, or some 12% of defense spending, for the just-ended fiscal year—more than what was spent on either the Department of Homeland Security ($53 billion) or the Justice Department ($30 billion). It's triple the $26.7 billion that was budgeted in 1998, the...

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