Pentagon budget a 'zero sum game,' says Rep. Adam Smith, state's senior lawmaker on Armed Services

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/03/04/3078110/pentagon-budget-a-zero-sum-game.html

Pentagon budget a 'zero sum game,' says Rep. Adam Smith, state's senior lawmaker on Armed Services
By ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
March 4, 2014

The Puget Sound’s senior lawmaker on military issues views Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s $496 billion proposed budget as a “zero sum game” that reflects hard choices in a time of postwar belt-tightening.

“Going forward, we’re going to have to live within the budget we have. It’s the law of the land,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

Hagel last week gave a preview to his 2015 spending plan that revealed proposals to shrink the Army, cut 5 percent of National Guard personnel, mothball the Air Force’s A-10 Warthog close-air-support jet, retire the U-2 surveillance aircraft and cap construction of Navy cruisers. The Pentagon today is releasing the budget proposal, and senior officers are expected to discuss it publicly with reporters.

The item most likely to sting in Washington state is Hagel’s proposal to reduce the size of the Army from a force of today’s 522,000 soldiers to less than 450,000. The Army previously was on a path to bring down the size of the force to 490,000 as the war in Afghanistan ends.