Pentagon Cuts to Strengthen America’s Defense and Economy: View

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-10/pentagon-cuts-that-will-strengthen-america-s-defense-and-its-economy-view.html


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Facing at least $450 billion in reductions over the next decade -- and as much as $1 trillion total if the congressional deficit supercommittee fails to reach a consensus and the automatic deficit trigger kicks in -- Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta may be tempted to follow precedent and ask for trims across the services and their programs. But it would be far better for U.S. security, and future budgets, if Panetta focused on eliminating clearly identified waste and redundancies.

Although some big-ticket items, like drawing down troop levels in Afghanistan, will have to play out politically, the Pentagon could act quickly to halt production on a number of unnecessary projects. The savings could be spent on programs that will prepare us for our immediate and future challenges. We have a few suggestions for where to cut:

-snip of suggestions-

None of this is to say that we should halt or impair military research and development. In fact, innovative programs should get more money. The Predator and other drone programs are excellent examples of relatively cheap technologies that have paid huge dividends, and deserve expanded budgets. To free up that money, however, Panetta has to find big savings, and programs such those above -- as well as the health-care program for service members and veterans, which will be the subject of a future editorial -- are obvious targets for trims that will actually make the U.S. more secure.
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personally I'm against drones, but the suggestions are good