Personnel, weapons may take budget hit

[unhappycamper]

Personnel, weapons may take budget hit
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 4, 2009 13:24:40 EST

With warnings coming from the Obama administration of a 2010 defense budget that will have only a modest $14 billion increase over current funding, lawmakers are coming to realize that the Defense Department’s long-range personnel and weapons programs are unsustainable.

Something has to give, and the likelihood is that it will be a combination of reigning in spending on personnel programs — including the possibility of smaller military and civilian pay raises — and a mix of cancellations, reductions and revisions in weapons programs, according to two congressional experts on the defense budget who testified Wednesday before the House Budget Committee.

The Obama White House is not expected to deliver a detailed 2010 federal budget to Congress until April, but a blueprint drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget proposes a 2010 defense budget of about $527 billion, or 8 percent more than the current budget. That does not include supplemental funding for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An 8 percent increase might seem large at a time of widespread economic crisis in the U.S., but the $14 billion increase falls far short of the $584 billion budget drawn up last fall by the Joint Chiefs in what has become more of a wish list than a formal budget plan.

Stephen Daggett, a defense policy and budget specialist with the Congressional Research Service, said it is hard for some people to understand how the defense budget can be short of money given dramatic increases over the years.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/military_personnel_budget_020409w/%2e



uhc comment: $527 billion my ass --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=11462

[barbtries]

1. just think

if we didn't insist on constant warmaking, we could just sit back with all the weapons we have and make peace, and feed, house and clothe people. i can dream.

[HillbillyBob]

2. What you said! In fact we need to halve the budget to kill people.

nt