Dire warnings from Pentagon over potential defense cuts

[alp227]

Source: CNN

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta turned up the heat on Congress Monday, warning that looming automatic budget cuts would undermine national security and set off a financial chain reaction from the hallways of the Pentagon, to the battlefields of Afghanistan, to civilian assembly lines.

The Pentagon already is digesting $450 billion of reductions over the next decade but now fears an additional $600 billion or more in cuts may be imminent if Congress cannot reach a deal on spending.

"The impacts of these cuts would be devastating for the department," Panetta said in a letter to Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina. He said that congressional failure to reach a budget agreement and the resulting so-called sequestration would trigger 23% across-the-board reductions and a halt to many new projects.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/14/us/pentagon-congress-cuts/index.html

[bluestateguy]

1. No more special rights for pampered defense contractors

They had a good decade, and now the party is over.

[msongs]

2. stupid Leon can't figure out that if we quit occupying Afghanistan we could save loads of ## nt

[Plucketeer]

15. Don't single out Leon.

The whole damned FETID MESS that's DC can't see ANYTHING but their own, self-serving interests. All the high-falutin' blather about national security - to protect our freedoms - and only a TEENIE fraction of them has the time of day for OWS doin's. Standing MUTE as cops rout those trying to make the first amendment work for them.

[Angry Dragon]

3. how are we going to have bases in every country if we cut back??

and how about all those drones we need to attack every country........

[Response]

4. Deep cuts to our social safety net WILL in the long run

undermine national security by setting off a financial chain reaction from Main Street, to the emptying malls, to the shuttered businesses that feel the pinch of America in despair.

[Enthusiast]

55. Yes. Social safety net cuts represent

a true and greater threat to U.S. security than "terrists".

[PoliticAverse]

5. Will we have to close some overseas bases and the troops come home and actually defend the US ? n/t

[Old and In the Way]

6. Do you want a country or an empire? - choose one, you can't have both.

[elzenmahn]

17. K&R

Well said. Rome tried it. The Byzantines tried it. The British tried it.

Look what happened. And we're on the same trajectory.

[Enthusiast]

57. Welcome to the DU.

Thank you for your contribution to the discussion. We are on the same trajectory.

[mwrguy]

7. Those brown people aren't going to bomb themselves.

[Enthusiast]

58. Good point!

:rofl: :hi:

[indepat]

8. We can take great comfort the additional $600 billion will probably be shouldered mostly by bigger

cuts to social security, Medicare, and Medicaid so that national defense will not be undermined. We can take further comfort that these impending cuts to the big three will not undermine the health, well-being, or longevity of any of the old, frail, and poor most impacted by these cuts. If, by chance, some do go hungry, cold, without their medicines, without access to medical care, or die pre-maturely due to much governmental forethought, we can take further great comfort that they will have not died in vain for they will have shouldered such a great portion of shared sacrifice so that, with 5% of the population, MIC spending can remain at approximately one-half of the world's. :patriot:

[Enthusiast]

59. True

:patriot: :rofl:

[Mosaic]

9. Great news!

Starve the Department of Offense. We are not the world's policemen. It outrageous to even entertain that notion.

[russspeakeasy]

10. ..if we doubled their budget, they would want more.

[Lasher]

14. We did.

And they do.



http://www.davemanuel.com/2010/06/14/us-military-spending-over-the-years/

US military spending doubled during the past decade. And Leon can't get by with one penny less.

[Gin Blossom]

23. Now there's a graph that pisses me off.

Remember the BS about the "Peace Dividend"?

[Enthusiast]

62. Yeah but the peace dividend ended when we started a war.

Two wars. :rofl:

[Lasher]

63. Yes, it was heralded by then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney

Under Poppy Bush.

Edit: For some reason my upthread link doesn't work anymore. Here it is again:

http://www.davemanuel.com/2010/06/14/us-military-spending-over-the-years/

Notice in the graph that defense spending starts going down a little starting in 2012. Well it ain't 2012 yet and the actual expenditures a year from now will be higher. The Pentagon has been making a big deal about military spending cuts but they are all in the future. In this respect the future never comes.

Edit again: I'll be damned, the link doesn't work again. Here, I'll try it this way:

The Growth of US Military Spending Over the Years

[Enthusiast]

61. That's because a the terrists.

Don't you know nuthin? Grow a brain, moran! USA USA USA! :patriot:

[Lasher]

64. Terra! Terra! Terra!

The Chinese are going to invade the Aussies!

[Enthusiast]

60. Yeah but....read post #7. nt

[and-justice-for-all]

11. blah blah blah.....Panetta can blow it out of his ass....

Pentagon budget is off the charts and needs cut, significicantly.

[closeupready]

67. +1000.

nt

[Grassy Knoll]

12. If you haven't seen this video....

Then you can't defend the fight for more war and $$$
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682

[tcaudilllg]

13. cry me a river.

[truthisfreedom]

16. Yep. Time to stop being the world's superpower. Time to start being the first country in the world

to reach sustainability first. Time to ratchet down the rhetoric, stop the madness, and try to stay alive for a while.

[lovuian]

18. we can't rule the world with a huge deficit

something has to give

[go west young man]

19. Fuck the military.

They are bleeding us dry. Cut all those programs and save lives at home with medicare for all and proper education.
And I say that as a Marine vet.

[Yon_Yonson]

28. I second that and I also say that as a Former Marine

[lib2DaBone]

20. $40 BILLION per month ..flushed down the toilet in Afghanistan...

pretty soon.. you're talkin' some real money....

[girl gone mad]

21. They should hold a bake sale.

[Prometheus Bound]

71. I love that line.

How I would love to hear a US President say it!

[truthisfreedom]

22. Oh my God, honey! If you cut my budget I won't be able to finish my purpose-built 1/4 mile dragster

in time for the first snowfall!

[AntiFascist]

24. Look at what building an empire has done for most of us...

and look at who it benefits!

[Orrex]

25. These cuts will seriously compromise our ability to thwart an alien invasion

What else could possibly justify a bigger military budget even after our two primary wars have ended?

[naaman fletcher]

26. There are no actual cuts!

It just won't grow as fast as otherwise.

[Yon_Yonson]

27. TO BAD .... SO SAD

[sendero]

29. These cuts will never happen.

... congress will find a loophole and cancel the whole deal.

But imagine if they did. Imagine a military that had to live within its means like 99% of the country. Imagine a military unable to engage in POINTLESS, ILLEGAL and COUNTERPRODUCTIVE wars, like, say every fucking war we've fought since WWII.

[PuffedMica]

30. But we need more aircraft carriers - eleven just isn't enough!

:sarcasm:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

31. No dire warnings over cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security?

Panetta doesn't want to lose any of his precious bloated budget.

No kidding.

[Omaha Steve]

32. Panetta: Deep defense cuts mean fewer troops (levels not seen since 1940)

Source: AP-Excite

By DONNA CASSATA

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of U.S. ground forces would drop to levels not seen since 1940, the Navy would drop to the smallest number of ships since 1915 and the Air Force would be the smallest ever, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in warning Congress of the dire implications of deeper defense cuts.

The Pentagon chief on Monday offered a litany of drastic steps triggered by the automatic, across-the-board cuts if Congress' supercommittee fails to come up with a $1.2 trillion deficit-cutting plan by Nov. 23. If the panel stumbles, the Pentagon faces some $500 billion in reductions in projected spending over 10 years - on top of the $450 billion already under way.

"Devastating for the department," Panetta wrote in a letter to Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Senate Armed Services Committee's top Republican, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a panel member. The two lawmakers had written the Pentagon chief earlier this month seeking specifics.

Panetta's letter came on the eve of his appearance before the committee. The Pentagon chief and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will face the panel Tuesday to answer questions about the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by year's end. Lawmakers are expected to press them about the defense budget and the handling of service members' remains at the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20111115/D9R14S700.html

[liberal N proud]

33. It would be a shame if the US no longer had more military than the rest of the world combined

:sarcasm:

[Enthusiast]

56. LOL

One would imagine that other nations might find it refreshing.

[ingac70]

34. *YAWN*

:nopity:

[ejbr]

35. whatever mo fo n/t

[Marblehead]

36. what a clusterf#$%

austerity for the DoD, too bad. I hate that the american people have to pick up the tab for a global banker take over, let them foot the bill it's their globe..

[matmar]

37. So his complaint is that technology has reduced the need for more crap?

piss off fuckshite.

[thelordofhell]

38. Bovine Excrement

[newfie11]

39. good, maybe we will stop killing people all over the world n/t

[olleander]

40. Hurrah! Hurrah! Back to a Republic!

[on point]

41. I call BS. Just cut back on the expensive toys and the imperialism

[No Elephants]

46. Bingo! (You have just lived up to your screen name.)

[GoCubsGo]

42. Good.

What we have now is gross overkill. The rest of the country has been devastated at their expense for decades. It's about time they be forced to live under the same "efficiency standards" and "austerity" as the rest of us.

[Enthusiast]

65. The military is now so powerful that we must use it

to justify its existence.

[Bonhomme Richard]

43. How about we set a level 2X any other army size...

Will that do it Leon?

[Enthusiast]

66. That would be entirely reasonable.

So that idea is OUT!

[Myrina]

44. ... but they're not cutting the amount of money going to weapons developing companies, right?

What was it Rumsfeld wanted ... a 'privatized' military? Yeah, I can see that on the horizon. And our actual military spending won't decrease one bit.

[RocketTuna]

51. That's my main concern

Is this just going to end up shoveling all of the cash into the contractors' pockets? How would this all be worded?

When they made government small enough to drown in a bathtub - the corporations were happy to step in, and libertarians are still blind to the cause and effect of their ideology. Liberals need to watch a deliberate shrinking of the military/industrial complex like hawks if we're going to avoid becoming the next set of dupes.

[malthaussen]

45. These sound like good ideas to me

We can easily defend ourselves at those force levels.

-- Mal

[No Elephants]

47. BS. As if troops were the only thing Defense could cut. Sit down and shut up you effing, lying

Nixonite.

It's the private contractors and toys that cost real money. They could pay the troops from what's in the cushions in the Pentagon.

As if government would cut down on troops with protests going on all around the nation anyway.

Please, Louise, Panetta. Just shut up and stop embarrassing yourself.

[alcibiades_mystery]

48. Good

We don't need a massive standing army.

Let's shitcan a lot of the pending arms projects, too. The arsenals we're stockpiling are ludicrous beyond measure. Historians will view our current military expenditures with puzzlement and laughter.

Cashier a bunch of officers and cut the weapons by 50%. Then we'll start looking at the additional cuts to bring the budget back down to Earth.

[DaveJ]

49. Maybe they should discourage war profiteering

War profiteering is so en vogue now, no wonder an aircraft cost hundreds of millions dollars. Blame the profiteers and the rich who refuse to be taxed (although they might be the enemy we are fighting next).

[atreides1]

50. The man is full of it

US Army(excludes Air Corps personnel)
July 1, 1940 - 240,000 + National Guard (Not inducted) : 200,000

US Airforce (US Army Air Corps)
July 1, 1940 - 51,000

US Naval
1915- 57,702 Personnel/231 Ships of all classes

There is no way in hell that they'll cut troop strength down to those numbers ever again!

Obama could have done better with 2 dead batteries and an off switch when selecting a SecDef!!!

[krabigirl]

69. Good. Maybe we can focus on defense, not offense.

[bongbong]

52. Of course!

The Brave New World of the USA stealing natural resources from other countries doesn't need soldiers any more. We've got drones & other electronic gizmos now.

What a bright, positive, life-affirming world we can look forward to!

[Enthusiast]

53. A military a fraction of the present size is still unjustifiable.

And it is unprecedented in our history. Only since the cold war has the U.S. military reached such a large and expensive size. We have military installations in hundreds of countries. The size and scope of the American military mission is far too large and should be drastically cut.

[Sabriel]

54. I'll heed this like they heeded our dire warnings about cuts to education.

How about a little shift of funding toward K-16 education, eh? And combating poverty?

[krabigirl]

68. Oh no, we won't be the world's policeman anymore. What will we do??

[Doctor_J]

70. Welfare Queens abound in Arlington

Notice how "Dem" Leon sent his plea to to Repukes.

:puke: