- Abracadabra wrote:
How many time have you heard or read.....If The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the “Super Committee”) deadlocks, it will result in automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.
First and foremost there are no automatic spending cut, I say again.... no automatic spending cut. Second, even if there were automatic spending cuts...do you think they would survive for the next ten years????
The sequester mechanism is a what Washington is calling spending cut, but to be more precise they are a reduction in expected spending increases.... not automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years
Economist Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute has explained, spending will still increase every year under the sequester (although more slowly), including increases in defense spending.
Under these circumstances, I celebrate the outcome even though it only modestly reduces the runaway growth of federal spending.
I have looked into SO-CALLED automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years and must add more information and state that I believe that defense spending must be re-evaluated because the Obama administration has presided over at least three rounds of defense reductions, already!!!!!!
READ MORE.....Further cuts to defense spending risk fundamentally eroding America’s standing and leadership role in the world.
Some today find it tempting to slash investments in America’s national security and international interests, especially given current efforts to reduce the federal debt and deficit. As this analysis has argued, however, defense spending—which has already faced nearly $1 trillion ($850 billion) in cuts and has done its part for deficit reduction.....read the following and see that it has done more than its part.....
Defense spending has been subjected to several rounds of reductions under President Obama, with long-term cuts amounting to roughly $850 billion. Moreover, if Congress fails to pass into law a massive deficit-reduction bill by January 12, 2012, then long-term defense will be again cut—this time, by as much as $500 billion.
The Obama administration has presided over at least three rounds of defense reductions. Round 1: In 2009, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates not only cancelled 20 major weapons systems, but also delayed or targeted for cancellation other vital replacement systems. Cuts in spending on these programs is leading to the loss of planned military capabilities in the future, as Mackenzie Eaglen of the Heritage Foundation explained:
“Canceled equipment programs include: a combat search-and-rescue helicopter; the F-22 fifth generation fighter; the Army's Future Combat System; the multiple-kill vehicle for missile defense; a long-range bomber for the Air Force; the VH-71 presidential helicopter; the Transformational Satellite (T-Sat) program, and the second Airborne Laser aircraft. In addition, the administration pushed construction of an aircraft carrier out four years to five, reduced the number of Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptors from 44 to 30, and abandoned the Navy's next-generation cruiser. The recently passed 2011 defense budget was not spared the axe, either. Some of the reductions included: ending production of the country's only wide-bodied cargo aircraft, the C-17; terminating the EPX intelligence aircraft; permanently canceling the Navy's cruiser; ending another satellite program, and killing the Marine's Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. The Army's surface-to-air missile program and its Non-Line-of-Sight cannon are also gone.”
Summing up this round of cuts, Secretary Gates said: “All told, over the past two years, more than 30 programs were cancelled, capped, or ended that, if pursued to completion, would have cost more than $300 billion.”
Round 2: In 2010, then-Secretary of Defense Gates initiated a drive to save $78 billion over a five-year period. As Gates later explained, that drive had four parts:
“First, the approximately $54 billion in DoD-wide overhead reductions and efficiencies… which included a freeze on all government civilian salaries. Second, roughly $14 billion reflecting shifts in economic assumptions and other changes relative to the previous FYDP [five-year defense plan]—for example, decreases in the inflation rate and projected pay raises. Third, $4 billion of savings to the Joint Strike Fighter program to reflect re-pricing and a more realistic production schedule given recent development delays. And fourth, more than $6 billion was saved by our decision to reduce the size of the Active Army and Marine Corps starting in FY 2015.”
Round 3: In August of this year, President Obama and Congress struck a grand bargain to raise the U.S. debt limit known as the Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25). This controversial law immediately placed ceilings on discretionary “security” spending—defined to include the Pentagon, as well as the State Department, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, foreign aid programs, and the U.S. intelligence community.
In implementing the Budget Control Act’s spending ceilings, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget is reportedly looking to trim as much as $489 billion more from the Pentagon’s budget over the next decade. In turn, the effect of this round of cuts is already starting to have an impact on future defense planning. As the Washington Post reported on November 2, 2011: “The military chiefs of staff told Congress … that all four services will have to shrink their forces to meet the planned 10-year cut of $450 billion [or more] in defense spending. Until now, only the Army and the Marines have said they would have to cut troops.”
These three rounds of defense reductions have yielded roughly $850 billion in long-term cuts. During this time period, no other government agency has been asked to implement reductions comparable to these defense cuts.http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/11/Defending-Defense-Setting-the-Record-Straight-on-US-Military-Spending-Requirements
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