Will media note decreased size of Military began under Reagan(88 decreased

[papau]

Will media note the decrease in the size of Military began under Reagan (88 size was less than 87's 2.2 million size)

The story below notes the GOP control of Congress since 94 that lead to the current 1.5 million size military achieved in 1998, is now on an election year 04 "We should increase the size of the military theme" (despite the Deficit due to tax cut for the rich).




Congress pushes for larger military

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=716&e=21&u=/usatoday/20031212/ts_usatoday/12067033



• Congress agreed this year to spend $68 million to increase the Army by 2,400 slots, about 0.5% of the current 480,000-strong force.


• A bill has been introduced in the House to increase the size of the Army, Marines and Air Force by roughly 8% over five years. The bill would add 40,000 troops to the Army, bringing it to 522,400, while the Air Force would grow by 28,700 to 388,000 and the Marines by 15,000 to 190,000. "If the administration is going to deploy thousands of troops across the globe, the size of our military needs to reflect that," says Rep. Ellen Tauscher (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., author of the bill.


• Fifty-four of the 61 members of the House Armed Services Committee, joined by the top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, have sent President Bush (news - web sites) a letter urging him to expand the U.S. combat force. The letter also asks Bush to reassess the ratio between active and reserve forces used in long deployments because of concerns that the military is overly reliant on the Guard and Reserve in the war on terrorism.


The drive to deal with the issue appears stronger in the House, where Rep. Roy Blunt (news, bio, voting record), R-Mo., the No. 3 Republican leader, plans to push for action early next year. But the Senate has similar concerns.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=716&e=21&u=/usatoday/20031212/ts_usatoday/12067033