DoD Buzz: Troop Costs Vie With Weapons

[unhappycamper]

Troop Costs Vie With Weapons
By Greg Grant Thursday, November 19th, 2009 10:29 am
Posted in Air, Land, Naval, Policy, Space

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the new force in Washington policy debates amid fears over sky-high federal deficits, said defense budgets must grow by at least 6 percent beginning next year to pay for weapons programs currently on the books. The base defense budget would have to increase to an average of $567 billion annually for two decades; the 2010 budget request was $534 billion.

While a 6 percent increase in defense spending might not appear all that high — the defense budget had been increasing by nearly 8 percent a year since 2001 — it looms large when viewed in the context of sluggish U.S. economic growth, record deficits, and the need to pay interest on that growing pile of debt.

Higher defense spending is driven by four factors: first, rising labor costs due to ever higher pay and benefits; second, higher bills to repair and maintain war worn equipment; third, costly new weapons programs; and fourth, buying new intelligence and surveillance assets, said CBO’s Matthew Goldberg, in his testimony Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee. Increased pay and benefits to military and civilian personnel is the key driver here.

While Goldberg listed weapons cost growth as a factor in higher budgets, CBO actually shaved $25 billion from DoD’s projected investment accounts (investment spending includes procurement funds and research and development spending). The savings come from Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent weapons cancellations. With those cuts, CBO projects investment spending to drop to $177 billion by 2013, down from $194 billion in the base budget in 2009.

Still, defense budgets will continue to see big increases even with Gates’ cuts. Put simply, labor costs are killing DoD’s investment plans. Military healthcare alone costs over $47 billion a year and the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessment’s projects healthcare spending to nearly double in ten years.


Rest of article at: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/11/19/troop-costs-vie-with-weapons/?wh=wh



unhapppycamper comment: And you guys are pissing away $180 million dollars a day in the continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Sherman A1]

1. You are absolutely correct in your conclusion

how much has been "tinkled" away over the last 8 years on the wars. I would be willing to bet there would be no budget issue for DOD right now if we had all that money and had not had the wear and tear on the equipment.