Obama Plans to Shrink War Spending Over 25% Next Yr-$42 Billion Cut from Military-Industrial Complex

[Pirate Smile]

Obama Plans to Shrink War Spending Over 25% Next Year -- $42 Billion Cut from Military-Industrial Complex
Announced cuts would be the largest year-to-year decrease in total war funding" since the start of the war in Afghanistan.

January 21, 2011 | A plan to reduce the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan means that the Pentagon's war budget can be cut by $42 billion in fiscal year 2012. That's a 26 percent decrease from fiscal 2011, when $159 billion was budgeted.

"The proposed $117 billion for fiscal year 2012, which begins Oct. 1, would be the lowest expenditure for the wars since fiscal 2005," Bloomberg's Tony Capaccio reported.
The cuts reflect the Obama administration's plan to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as new rules on what can be included in the war budget.

"That’s the largest year-to-year decrease in total war funding" since the start of the war in Afghanistan, the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments' Todd Harrison told Bloomberg.
"With a year-to-year reduction in war funding of this magnitude, it appears to signal an intent to continue the withdrawal from Iraq and to begin reducing troops levels in Afghanistan during fiscal 2012," he said.

In early January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates surprised lawmakers by announcing that the Pentagon would cut overall spending by $78 billion over the next five years.
The cuts will force the Army and Marine Corps to reduce the number of troops on active duty and eventually freeze military spending for the first time since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

http://www.alternet.org/world/149637/obama_plans_to_shrink_war_spending_over_25%25_next_year_--_%2442_billion_cut_from_military-industrial_complex/?page=entire