Northrop Grumman CEO: ‘Be thoughtful about Pentagon budget cuts’

[harvey007]

Source: The Hill

Wesley Bush, Northrop Grumman’s chief executive officer, on Tuesday warned that cuts to the defense budget could save money for a few years but hurt national security in the long run.

A growing chorus of lawmakers and think tanks are making the case that the Pentagon’s budget should be on the chopping block as part of efforts to reduce the nation’s deficit.

The Pentagon’s budget represents more than half of the country’s discretionary spending. The defense budget for fiscal year 2010 is $693.3 billion, while the request for 2011 is $708.2 billion. Those amounts include funding for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bush said that it would be a “better investment” to keep funding weapons systems programs and other technologies rather than letting military capabilities “atrophy” and investing in defense only when the need arises. Reconstituting when needed could prove to be a costly proposition, Bush indicated.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/124861-northrop-grumman-ceo-be-thoughtful-about-pentagon-budget-cuts-

[ixion]

1. Oh, heaven forbid we cut off the cash flow to the MIC.

:eyes:

[MadMaddie]

2. Is that a threat?

[creeksneakers2]

3. What chorus of lawmakers and think tanks?

I'd love to hear about this.

[groundloop]

4. Gee, maybe we shouldn't have fought 2 wars while also cutting taxes for the rich

I'd bet our budget would be in a hell of a lot better shape.

[givemebackmycountry]

6. And they kept it off the books as well...

Kinda like the "well I still have checks, so that means I must sill have money" theory.

[UncleScott]

5. Don't throw the babies out with the bath water

I think that's all he's saying. I actually agree with him. First there are a lot of people employed by these programs, and they're providing strategic capability to our country. Do we really want more middle class Americans unemployed right now? Many of the new pentagon programs are based on knowledge gained in those two wars, and will be used to save a whole lot of lives... or we can just stop DoD spending altogether because the defense department is evil...

[liberation]

7. Or maybe the DoD and the defense contractors could streamline costs...

... by not wasting money on hiring people to post anonymously on the internet. That way there are more Fed dollars available for actual job creation programs which do not involving blowing shit up. For example.

[displacedvermoter]

13. Bravo!!!

[Alcibiades]

8. But those babies are eating us out of house and home

In a world where the US and its most reliable allies account for over 70% of all defense spending, this is an area that's easy to cut. We spend over 4.3% of GDP on defense, and China spends 2%. This is unsustainable and unnecessary--in economic terms, we might as well be paying people to bury money in giant holes.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. we are going to have...

a major re-tool of the military pretty soon. Just like after Viet Nam- 10 years of continuous warfare beats the shit out of hardware, which we will "have" to replace. Emmanuel Goldstein (in 1984) was right. And more of our money will disappear into the black hole that is the MIC, and the people will cheer and scream "we're #1".

[mike_c]

10. the war pigs grunt....

Oink oink oink.

[soryang]

11. Killing peasants in central Asia is expensive...

...but it has nothing to do with national defense.

[wmbrew0206]

12. That is a little, don't forget how many of your constitutants we employ reminder.

The defense contractors are stupid. They 98% of their funding comes from the government and the only way to ensure that cash keeps coming is to ensure that they have a presence in as many congressional districts as possible. The spread out their operations as much as possible to maximize their leverage when it comes time for the defense budget. No congressmen is going to cut funding for a system in their district, so these defense contractors keep getting their way.

This is why most programs that the DoD wants cut stay alive when the defense budget is put to Congress.

[ProudDad]

14. And Wesley BUSH (ha-ha-ha)

You're a lying sack of SHIT...

Piss on ALL Flags!


CUT THE FUCKER BY 75%!

And tell the Chinese...sorry, we can't pay you back for the money you loaned us to build up our war machine... :shrug:

Come'on and foreclose...

[Luciferous]

15. Well of course he's going to say that, it's in the best interest of his company.

It's not like we have anything better to do with the money anyway, right? :mad: