Gates proposal would cut thousands of defense jobs

[cory777]

Source: McClatchy

In an effort to deter potential budget cuts by Congress and streamline a burgeoning Defense Department, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Monday proposed to cut spending on contracting, to close a command stationed in Norfolk, Va., and to reduce the number of flag officers and civilian leaders.

The proposed changes would lead to the elimination of thousands of jobs. However, whether the changes - which add up to small fraction of the defense department's $535 billion annual budget - will be enough to pacify Congress remains unclear. With war funding, the defense budget has doubled since 2001.

"We must be mindful of the difficult economic and fiscal situation facing our nation," Gates said in briefing reporters at the Pentagon Monday. "We cannot expect Congress to approve budget increases each year."

Gates called the changes an effort to eliminate waste and duplication.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/09/2139381/gates-proposal-would-cut-thousands.html

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Uncensored, Cutting Edge News! http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. why jobs and not obsolete weapons

[AtheistCrusader]

12. Why not both?

I mean, seriously.

[Chulanowa]

14. Because Gates is a Civilization fan

You never know when that spearman might come in handy! I've seen them take out panzer formations!

[Warpy]

2. He needs to hack away at the real problem

and that is the blank check they get to keep the welfare office for arms contractors wide open for business.

Another problem is that it's so compartmentalized, every department wanting to keep it's fiefdom intact and the budget cuts elsewhere.

The cuts need to be 10% per year to get those old boys to start making some of the hard choices. This is a drop in the bucket. It's overdue, but there's not enough of it.

[Earth_First]

3. Bullshit! This is an election year stunt to blame on the Democrats as being soft on defense...

They know that they do not have their GOP minions in a row, so they will hit them where their values lie deepest: military/defense spending and nationalist xenophobia...

[Gecko6400]

15. I forget. Who does Gates work for?

[ProudDad]

19. He works for the Military-industrial complex's latest spokes-model (n/t)

[msongs]

4. $$ saved by this will be spent on other projects, NOT SAVED at all according to radio news reports.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. When we used to have occasional wars, we had a War Department.

Now we euphemized the title into "Defense Department," and have pretty much continuous wars. It seems that every time we get a new euphemism we are being set up for a new outrage. It's a bipartisan habit. Remember Bush's Patroiot Act, Clear Skies Initiative, and Free Speech Zones, and Arne's Race to the Top.

[hollowdweller]

6. I think we should have a payroll deduction for Defense

Just like SS. And when we run more wars it goes up.

Right now the public has no connection idea how much goes to Defense.

[seattleblue]

9. Good idea except have it labeled "War Payment".

[SoapBox]

7. Start by firing Black Water / Xe or whatever the hell those crooks and killers call the company now.

[Hawkowl]

11. That would be in the State Department

O.k. they are probably getting a butt load from Defense but they are also collecting $$$ for guarding State Department people. Just like the Department of Energy is collecting $$$ for nuclear weapons. We are destroying our economy to fatten war profiteers.

[Bigmack]

8. $535 Billion...Bullshit!.. The 2011 budget is $708 Billion...

"DOD Releases Defense Reviews, 2011 Budget Proposal, and 2010 War Funding Supplemental Request - Update

President Barack Obama today sent to Congress a proposed defense budget of $708 billion for fiscal 2011. The budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) includes $549 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund base defense programs and $159 billion to support overseas contingency operations (OCO), primarily in Afghanistan and Iraq."

http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=13281

Buried in the story is the full amount, but the Teabaggers/Repubs/Freepers only read the big print.

Lemme see... back of the envelope math here, but Gates - at Obama's order - is gonna cut $100 Billion over 5 years from the military budget. Five years times $700 Billion is ..... $3.5 Trillion. Soooo... cutting $100 Billion during that time means the military will only have..... $3.4 Trillion!

We better cut the pay of the troops... cut VA stuff... cut back on ammo...cut back on body armor. Gonna have to tighten those belts!

Jesus Fucking Christ on a Fucking crutch!

[intheflow]

10. We could always reinvest in retraining and rebuilding our infrastructure

with green energy.

[smalll]

13. Wow. So the Bush-holdover Gates proposes major cuts in miltary spending --

which could actually cause military spending to be cut --

and because Gates, unlike all the complainers (so far) on this thread -- is NOT convinced that the U.S. military is --

1) Equivalent to the Nazi Wermacht

2) 100% evil when it ever tries to do anything

3) unsporting by bringing the full force of the MIC against poor, impoverished brown people just trying to defend their homelands, AND

4) at the same time, DOOMED TO FAILURE --- in every war we fight, the other guys will win! Run away, run away!!!!

-- he deserves to be tarred and feathered? Sorry, no.

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So Gates actually comes out to call for major cuts in the Pentagon budget, and all you people can do is complain?!? :eyes:

[killbotfactory]

16. Fill in the blank

These cuts ____ and so they are a betrayal of everything progressives stand for.
1. don't go far enough
2. target the wrong areas
3. are a lie masking a defense budget increase
4. are conservative plot to make dems look weak
5. all of the above

[Ichingcarpenter]

17. Major Cuts to you mean No or little increases?

Because that's what it is. That's not 'big cuts'
The New York Times Article starts off talking about Programs Gates wants to cut but here's the real point:

snip:
But they do not represent an actual decline in year-to-year total spending.

Mr. Gates is calling for the Pentagon’s budget to keep growing in the long run at 1 percent a year after inflation, plus the costs of the war. It has averaged an inflation-adjusted growth rate of 7 percent a year over the last decade (nearly 12 percent a year without adjusting for inflation), including the costs of the wars. So far, Mr. Obama has asked Congress for an increase in total spending next year of 2.2 percent, to $708 billion — 6.1 percent higher than the peak under the Bush administration.

Mr. Gates is arguing that if the Pentagon budget is allowed to keep growing by 1 percent a year, he can find 2 percent or 3 percent in savings in the department’s bureaucracy to reinvest in the military — and that will be sufficient to meet national security needs. In one of the paradoxes of Washington budget battles, Mr. Gates, even as he tries to forestall deeper cuts, is trying to kill weapons programs he says the military does not need over the objections of members of Congress who want to protect jobs.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/10gates.html?_r=1&...

Geez, the biggest item in the budget and they will "get by" with only a 1 percent increase per year?

[ProudDad]

21. No, check again. He's NOT cutting the overall budget

just moving a minuscule amount of money around for political purposes so the WAR BUDGET WON'T BE CUT! :eyes:

[Javaman]

18. Why cut them? why not have them work on alternative power projects?

I fear the movie "falling down".

[ProudDad]

20. He's NOT CUTTING, he's MOVING about $1 billion

from one obsolete area of the war machine...

to prop up another obsolete area of the war machine that pays the military-industrial complex better -- more high-tech toys to fight the Cold War and murder civilians in Afghanistan...

He's NOT proposing to CUT the war budget by one thin dime!

This is all election year bullshit from a right-wing fuck...