Navy chief concerned about budget

[unhappycamper]

Navy chief concerned about budget
By JEN DIMASCIO | 2/6/11 6:01 PM EST Updated: 2/7/11 6:48 AM EST

With congressional gridlock making it more likely that the Pentagon will receive the same amount of funding this year as last year, the Navy’s top officer is throttling up the pressure to change course.

Congress has yet to pass a spending bill for fiscal year 2011, instead carrying over funding from the previous year in a continuing resolution. Lawmakers have until March 4 to either approve a new spending bill or pass another continuing resolution, and with just three weeks of legislative action on the calendar, Democrats are beginning to raise the specter of a government shutdown.

Echoing recent comments made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who called a continuing resolution a “crisis on my doorstep,” Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, told POLITICO in an interview that a continuing resolution would threaten some of the very things that help lawmakers get reelected — jobs across the country, the Navy’s wartime operations and the lives of sailors and their families.

But those who are focused on containing the ballooning deficit are urging Congress to stand strong in the face of pressure from the Pentagon brass.

A continuing resolution, representing a $23 billion cut to the Pentagon’s budget request for 2011, is a good first step to imposing fiscal discipline, Gordon Adams, a professor at American University, writes on The Stimson Center’s blog, The Will and the Wallet.



unhappycamper comment: I'm laughing my ass off at this article.

Want to fix your budget woes Admiral? Here's an easy way to cut $65 billion dollars from the Navy's budget:

Cancel those three new $5+ billion dollar Zumwalt-class destroyers.
Cancel the new $40 billion dollar USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.

[hobbit709]

1. He doesn't care about the budget or the deficit.

He only cares about his cut of the take.

[LeftinOH]

2. Abandon Guantanamo Naval Base --completely. There's a start.

What a phenomenal waste of money that base is -it's not protecting Cuba; not protecting the USA from Cuba; serving no real purpose except to spite the Cuban government.

[former9thward]

3. The navy is very top heavy in officers.

There are 11 Aircraft carrier battle groups and 216 admirals. Way too many personnel in the top ranks. He should start cutting there.

[vssmith]

4. And they want 2 more carriers

How many carriers does China have?

[former9thward]

5. Essentially zero right now.

The Chinese bought a Soviet carrier that had not been completed in 1998. The Russians stripped it of any military or propulsion equipment (it had to be towed from Ukraine to China) before the sale and the Chinese have been working to make it operational since then. It may be ready this year or next. They are also building two new carriers which may be ready in 2015 or so.