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

[gateley]

1. This is big/good news! I think the defense budget is the ONLY area

that the Republicans don't want to cut.

[dkf]

2. Only 25%?

Arent we out of Iraq?

[Pisces]

5. I posted too late, there you are.

[phleshdef]

24. Don't start with the "only" shit. 25% over 1 year would be enormous.

Tell me the last time anything remotely close to that has happened.

[paulk]

28. it doesn't happen until 2012

maybe

[phleshdef]

31. Yea, of course, its 2011 now. Thats how budgets work.

[paulk]

32. the "savings" are based on projected troop decreases

which may or may not happen.

I'll cheer about this when it actually comes to pass.

[ProudDad]

49. It's NOT 25%

It's only 4% (at best) if it even is allowed to happen at all...

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[dionysus]

7. why, he needs to cut it 125% silly.

;)

[UrbScotty]

20. ROFL! (nt)

[dkf]

9. I'm not an Obama basher.

That just seems small considering we are supposed to be winding down.

[earthside]

11. Checking in.

"War spending"?

Don't get excited.

A cut in "war" spending, ie., Iraq and Afghanistan, does not necessarily mean that the entire military budget is being cut. Indeed, if history is any indication, what is cut in one place is more than made up for by increased spending in another area of the military budget.

Frankly, I just don't see Pres. Obama cutting overall military expenditures. By November 2012, my suspicion is that the Pentagon and the Energy Dept. and Veterans Dept. and 'Homeland' Security Dept. and CIA and all the related military-industrial-complex spending by the federal government will be up.

So, yeah, liberals and progressives, let's just wait until all the information is in before cheering Pres. Obama for 'cutting' military spending.

[Hoyt]

16. Not a basher, but why not adopt Catfood Commission recommendation of $100 Billion cut in military?

$42B is a start though.

[flpoljunkie]

22. It's a good start. The budget commission recommended $100 billion by 2015.

The goal is clear: cut $100 billion from defense and $100 billion from non-defense spending by 2015. The road there is less clear, because the discretionary budget is a vertiginous array of programs.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/the-plan-to-balance-the-budget-the-fiscal-commissions-final-report/67272/

[phleshdef]

25. Its 42 billion OVER ONE YEAR.

If you apply even more cuts between 2013 and 2015, he could possibly even exceed the cuts they recommended.

[Pisces]

26. Why are you being rational???? People want to be outraged!!! Nothing will ever be good enough.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

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[ClassWarrior]

18. They are phantoms in your own mind.

Since when are people who want their President to do better "basher" or "haters" or "demagogues" or whatever else we've been called?

NGU.

[BklnDem75]

23. Probably when they start calling him corrupt

Just an assumption.

[mopinko]

4. woohoo!

[golfguru]

6. Good start...but needs to cut much more

I can't think of anything more stupid than maintaining
800 military bases around the world paid for with borrowed
money from China. Otherwise start learning Chinese and be
ready to bow to the new rulers.

[dionysus]

8. thats far easier said than done you know.

[golfguru]

12. Yes how well do I know

It is very hard to relinquish the role of a super power/super cop.
The old guard will not change that mentality easily.

May be the ever increasing financial pain will change the younger
generation's thinking.

It is the same thing with drugs & prostitution. Illegal drugs are
a multi-billion profit business for the criminals, and addicts are
reason for higher property crimes such as burglaries & robberies.
And no tax revenue is generated from all the Billions in illegal drugs.
Then you add the cost of prisons & prison guards, police, judges,
lawyers, bailiffs and property lost by victims, it is unimaginable why
no one can see the truth.

[Hippo_Tron]

41. The US debt to China is less than a trillion dollars

And our GDP is over 14 trillion dollars. The only reason I might start learning Chinese anytime soon is because I want to go vacation in China.

[Hello_Kitty]

10. GOOD! Keep it up!

[lanlady]

13. about friggin' time

:applause::applause:

[cantbeserious]

14. Why Did Obama Wait So Long?

eom

[Overseas]

15. K&R. Takes courage to do that. War is such a major profit center for the USA.

Hope the Democratic team holds firm on those cuts.

They will be pressured to give them up by legislators who want to preserve their major sources of campaign funding.

They'll need to resist the GOP screaming about making the USA less safe again, even though spending more than all countries combined did not prevent 911, and the deficit financed Bush Wars and drone bombings have created thousands more enemies for our country.

[ClassWarrior]

17. A big K&R. Thank you Mr. President.

We'll be holding you to that.

NGU.

[old mark]

19. Great! K&R...nt

[Hydra]

21. Good news so far

But will this be overshadowed by an "emergency" appropriation of $100+ billion in the future? Perhaps more than 1?

[Arkana]

27. Come on, how can we NOT be behind this?

Can someone come in here with a straight face and tell me why this is a bad thing?

[ProudDad]

29. BULLSHIT headline!!!

The actual percentage, if it even fucking happens, is around 4% of the bloated war budget...

They're blowing smoke up your ass again...

[boppers]

35. What are you calling "war budget"?

It's nothing compared to the overall defense budget:



...but that has huge costs for things like subs and aircraft carriers not in war, missile silos that have never, ever, been used, huge amounts of planes (and replacements) that sit idle "just in case", and countless other examples of spending.

[ProudDad]

38. The true war budget is approx. $1.3 Trillion per year

It includes those direct costs for the Pentagon...

Plus the indirect war industry costs and subsidies...

And the costs of the "intelligence" apparatus...

And Fatherland Security...

And the interest cost on the U.S. Debt (the debt that was run up from ray-gun on to build up the war machine and fight the phony wars) filling the pockets of the banksters...

The grand total is approx $1.3 Trillion and climbing...

And that tiny "promised" reduction is about 4% of that...

It's bullshit!

If it even happens at all...

My money is on the repubs and democans increasing the war budget rather than decreasing it...

[Hippo_Tron]

42. If you're counting all of those things, a reduction by 4% is pretty good

Considering we just finished with a neocon President who believes that military spending should be increased indefinitely in order to deter any nation from ever thinking about trying to catch up with us.

[ProudDad]

46. We haven't finished with anyone...

"a neocon President who believes that military spending should be increased indefinitely in order to deter any nation from ever thinking about trying to catch up with us." is exactly what's in office now...

[stevenleser]

43. I love this manufacturing reasons to continue to be outraged with Obama B.S.

Its becoming more and more pathetic.

He takes away one of your talking points, you make up another.

- Combat operations in Iraq ended?

Faux outrage from the far left: "There still are SOME troops there!"

- Obama is not going to go for cuts in Social Security or raising the retirement age

Faux outrage from the far left: "That's only because we held his feet to the fire" (After of course asserting that Obama doesnt listen to progressives and only listens to corporate interests)

- Obama is cutting 25% from the budget from the two wars and is going to bring many of the troops home and wind down the conflicts

Faux outrage from the far left: "Dammit, that is only 4% of the overall defense department budget. Its nothing!!!11111!!!1!1!"

--------------------------------
Obamas critics on the left have ZERO credibility left

[ProudDad]

47. 1.3 Trillion Fucking Dollars a Year!!!

Go Figure - What Would It Cost to Save the World?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9po4ggUl-Ew


4% is bullshit -- chump change -- even if the fucking repuke/blue-dog congresscritters would let them apply such a slight decrease to the war machine in the first place!


I've been outraged since Vietnam -- and until this fucking excuse for a country learns to live within its means and stops exporting it's deadly venom I'll remain outraged...

There's NOTHING faux about it...

[trayNTP]

30. Hopefully not on the backs of soldiers and veterans

[ProudDad]

39. We don't need so many

3/4 of them can get real jobs...

If we had a society that paid for real work instead of bullshit McJobs and murder...

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

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[1776Forever]

34. Something I hadn't thought about came up on Ed Schultz radio show the other day.

Someone said - "Do you know what would happen if we brought all the soliders back at once? There would be thousands more unemployed! They just can't do that and have all these people out of work". I hope that they do something for these men and women that will help them after they get home! God knows we have enough out of work and nearly homeless now! I hope they come home soon, don't get me wrong, but I want them to come home to a quality of life that will sustain them and their families!

[mucifer]

40. Yes, but them not being killed or killing others would be a good thing. nt

[ProudDad]

48. There's plenty of "work" available

As there are enough resources to support a sustainable number of humans if we immediately begin to ease down to a sustainable population...

The problem is the bullshit "economy" that doesn't value useful, productive, sustainable, humane work that fulfills human needs...

And instead wastes most of the Earth's resources propping up a leech class...by creating artificial "wants" and pretending that they are needs...

The "unemployment problem" could be fixed overnight if there were a better index of prosperity than the bogus GDP...

[Pirate Smile]

36. kick

[paparush]

37. Good start. Just keep that ball rolling.

[JCMach1]

45. Now, if this were the total Pentagon budget we could get somewhere...