The Department of Defense (DoD) (Surprisingly) Advises Budget Cuts
Comments (0) I read this article by Gordon Adams, (posted on Nov. 17th) about the DoD, with great interest. I think most Americans have mixed feelings on defense spending. My son called me recently, after seeing a documentary on the History Channel. He was most alarmed on learning that each Marine stationed at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan, is costing the American taxpayers $1 million dollars per year!!
While we have been known to be a rich nation in the past, things are changing fast. These figures are appalling. And we wonder why we are going broke. (Well, actually, it’s only the common folks going broke. The arms dealers and their cohorts are doing quite well, thank you).
“The tidal wave is coming for defense budgets. Promising $100 billion in savings over five years, but hoping to keep the funds is not going to hold it back.
The wave is coming, first, from a growing sentiment that America’s debts and deficits are our number one security problem, as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen has said, and that defense must play a part in solving the problem. At $708 billion, defense consumes 19.4 percent of the federal budget this year compared to 19 percent for Social Security, 17.5 percent for other discretionary spending, and 16 percent for income-based entitlements.
Second, the tidal wave is coming from a growing recognition that we are doing way too much in the world, and way too much of it using our military forces. It is clearly time to reassess…
Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/11/17/dod-wake-up-and-cut/#ixzz15kh69wcO
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