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February 27, 2009
Obama To Cut US Defense Budget ~ Terrorist Bill Ayers Must Be Proud!
Costly US weapons face budget cuts under Obama
Hi-tech fighter aircraft, new warships and missile defense projects are all potential targets for big cuts in the US defense budget, as the American military faces a new era of limits under President Barack Obama.
With a mushrooming budget deficit of more than a trillion dollars, the new administration has signaled it hopes to scale back military spending partly through a planned reduction of troops in Iraq and by taking the axe to big ticket weapons programs.
"It's easier to cut weapons than personnel," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.
"There are clear signs that US defense spending peaked in 2008 and that it will be gradually declining over the next four years as the United States reduces its presence in Iraq," Thompson told AFP.
Obama's predecessor signed a 612 billion dollar defense authorization bill in September, the largest in real terms since World War II. But the economic crisis means defense spending will come under more pressure and restrictions.
In his speech to Congress on Tuesday, Obama promised his upcoming budget would bolster the pay and benefits of soldiers and increase the total number of troops but that unnecessary, "Cold War-era" weapons would be dumped.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, placing a top priority on fighting insurgents rather than conventional warfare, has warned that big weapons projects plagued by delays and cost overruns will come in for tougher scrutiny.
A list of candidates for possible cutbacks drawn up by the Pentagon includes more Navy destroyers built by General Dynamics, fighter jets including Lockheed Martin and Boeing's F-22 Raptors and carrier-based Super Hornets, a digital radio system for all the armed services and missile defense weaponry for Poland and the Czech Republic.
Gates has already singled out the F-22 Raptor fighters, which cost about 350 million dollars each, for potential cutbacks.
Military analysts have also questioned the need for more Navy aircraft carriers and a computer-linked network of Army vehicles, known as Future Combat Systems, which has faced criticism.
Gates has expressed frustration at slow-moving weapons programs that seem unrelated to the immediate threats posed by militants in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan or the deserts of Iraq.
The United States cannot "eliminate national-security risks through higher defense budgets, to do everything and buy everything," Gates wrote recently in the journal Foreign Affairs.
But lawmakers in Congress, many of whom receive campaign funding from military contractors, have a long tradition of fending off cuts to weapons projects in their home districts.
Determined to stem leaks over budget questions, Gates has made senior officials promise they will keep the details of defense budget talks secret as his department prepares to make tough cuts, a spokesman said.
In an unprecedented move, Gates has asked top military officers and civilian officials to sign non-disclosure forms in which they agree not to reveal deliberations about the politically charged budget.
"This is highly sensitive stuff involving programs costing tens of billions of dollars, employing hundreds of thousands of people and -- and go to the heart of national security," press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
Some conservative analysts argue constraints on defense spending could mean the United States will over time lose its strategic dominance as other countries seize on possible weaknesses.
"When you step back from all the details and look at what is really happening in the new administration, American military power is likely to decline in the years ahead due to a lack of money," Thompson said.
On the political left, Obama has already been accused of failing to rein in the vast Pentagon budget that represents nearly half of the world's military spending.
"The Barack Obama administration is continuing the neo-conservative agenda of US military domination of the world -- albeit with perhaps with a kinder-gentler face," said Peter Phillips, a professor at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored.
Obama putting military in harm's way?...YES!!
SNIPPET: “A military advocacy organization is not happy with President Barack Obama’s plans to drastically cut defense spending by $53 billion.”
MFU Statement on Obama’s Drastic Defense Cuts
Washington, DC – February 24, 2009 - Brian Wise, Executive Director for Military Families United, the nation’s premier military family advocacy organization, released the following statement concerning President Obama’s plan to drastically cut defense spending by $53 billion.
“Cutting defense spending before setting out a strategy in Afghanistan will dictate the strategy in Afghanistan, which is outright dangerous for our brave men and women in uniform. New and emerging threats require a military that is fully funded and capable of accomplishing their mission of keeping America safe and secure.
The President’s plan calls for drastic cuts in our war fighting capability, deterrence capacity, and hinders the development of the latest equipment which will increase our troops’ effectiveness and reduce casualties. Included on the chopping block is $1 billion dollars cut from the office designed to fight and defeat the improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which is short-sighted and will lead to more wounded veterans, and more Gold Star Families. The Administration has no qualms about providing $350 billion to bail out Wall Street or $17.4 billion to bail out General Motors and Chrysler, but cannot provide the necessary funding to protect our troops from IEDs or improved radio systems for servicemembers.
We at Military Families United, the nation’s premier military family advocacy organization, implore the President to provide the vital funding that our troops need and deserve. Generals on the ground know better than politicians in Washington what we need to succeed in Iraq and Afghanistan and to protect this country. Undercutting the Pentagon’s required amount can leave our troops unable to effectively fight the war on terror and our country more vulnerable to potential attacks. Our sons and daughters, husbands and wives make enormous sacrifices and lay their lives on the line so America can be safer, more secure and free from fear. They cannot afford to have their funding cut at a time when they need it more than ever.”
Wild Thing's comment........
Everything Obama has been doing shows how much he hates our country and our military. He truly wants to destroy BOTH!
And Yes for you Obama freaks trying to get your hateful comments through and your totally disgusting emails, Obama is a POS, communist, American hater, military loather and effeminate camel breath jerk!
The stimulus bill is loaded, overflowing with PORK, and some of the most insane and ridiculous things we have to pay for. Paying for another persons digital TV, tattoo removal, the list is long of the stupid, kiss up to their friends and lobbyist's pay offs. But can Obama fund our military, hell no. Cuts to our military said so off the cuff one would think he was talking about the freaking weather.
I am NOT afraid of terrorists, but I am terrified of what Obama is doing to our awesome country and to our military.
He has brought his hut dwelling, white hating, big business jealousy, small business hard working integrity, sickening Islam call to prayer worshiping moon god Allah loving, Bill Ayers terrorist comrade loyalty, animal hating, Palestinian loving self into our White House!
He is not just some Democrat that brings a liberal agenda to our government, he is well groomed in communism, a hater of our Freedoms and those that have fought for them. He has to do all his destruction as fast as 24 hour days will allow, shutting off those disagreeing with him and putting Bills we all would be against inside stimulus packages like a snake slithering in the grass.
He makes my blood run cold!
It has been said follow the money. That is true and it seldom is a waste of time when researching wrongs or corruption. In B.HUSSEIN Obama's case it is not only follow the money but follow the budget cuts and the pork. This is one Muslim that loves PORK! And he will sacrifice what our military needs to get the pork he wants.
The other day he referred to himself as a CEO. He is President of what has always been the most powerful country in the world! To refer to himself as a CEO is telling as well, he has the mentality of ONLY a community organizer NOT someone to hold the hightest office in the land. And he sure as hell is UNFIT to hold the position of CIC!
We have the defense and determination within our nation to survive. We've been attacked from the outside, and now we're under attack within and B.Hussein Obama is leading the way.
Obama will get hundreds of thousands of our citizens killed before he gets done. He thinks if he can read it off of a teleprompter that the world will do as he asks. You get peace by having a big well armed standing military ready, willing, and able to kick their ass if they start something.
No wonder our Military questions his eligibility to serve as President and to protect the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.
The Number One Enemy of the Constitution is B. Hussein Obama. He is both foreign and domestic, but he is NOT a Patriot. More like a Benedict Arnold in the White House.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 27, 2009 06:55 AM
Comments
He's a moron I wouldn't put in charge of a potato gun.
Posted by: Lynn at February 27, 2009 08:15 AM
Comrade Ayers realizes Mohamad Atta was only paid $500,000 from Al-Qaeda's OBL and KLM for 9-11-01's 'Operation Holy Tuesday' missions of terror!
Terrorists see things in the same light of evil.
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at February 27, 2009 08:54 AM
Once he has accomplished this. It will not be IF we are attacked again but exactly When we will be attacked again. I wonder if the deadbeats will accept this change too.
A redistribution of the wealth will be meaningless if there is nothing left. It is almost as if he is programmed or following some script, the whole thing has been perfectly orchestrated.
Posted by: Mark at February 27, 2009 09:28 AM
Reminds me of Johnson's cut and run, go to the wall and see the result from '67 on. Great Society my ass!!!
Posted by: Jack - American-American at February 27, 2009 10:55 AM
Obama hates the military. The military stands for honor and integrity as well as for valor. These are values that Obama neither has nor acknowledges.
The Defense Dept now has to expect four years of hostility from it's CinC. Even if hostilities in Iraq are dying down, DoD will still be fighting two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Washington DC.
Posted by: TomR at February 27, 2009 12:17 PM
Indeed! Even if you buy into the need for a Keynesian stimulus package, Defense spending is THE ULTIMATE Keynesian stimulus package. Why?
1. It's often high-tech
2. It's more often than not manufacturing oriented
3. When #1 and #2 don't apply, it's infrastructure and construction oriented
(examples include communication networks, interstate highways, strategic petroleum reserves)
4. Spin off technologies hit the civilian markets, from teflon to the internet
5. It's 100% made in the USA, by law, for national security reasons. British, Israeli, Japanese, and other foreign companies who do occasionally win defense contracts must produce the goods under license in the USA with American subcontractors.
Posted by: Nick Byram at February 27, 2009 12:59 PM
Moreover, the F-22 Raptor is "shovel ready", and is top notch. It is to the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon what the F-15 and F-16 were to the "Century Series" of 1950's-1960's fighters. All of the R+D has been done.
Cancelling it now would be the dumbest decision since Jimmuh Carter cancelled the B-1 bomber. (All of the cost overruns the liberal media hyped about the Bone were due to North American Rockwell Aerospace having to reinvent the wheel, as they had scrapped their assembly plant, machine tools, dies, etc. when Jimmuh Carter cancelled the project in 1977.
If the fighters are too pricey for now (and they are pricey), just order a few at a time, just enough to keep the Lockheed Martin plant going. Pricey is relative of course. They have money for illegal alien kids in school but not for this?
Posted by: Nick Byram at February 27, 2009 01:06 PM
Pricey? $612 Billion is too pricey? what about the TRILLIONS this M*therF*cker wants to spend in "stimulus" "housing" and other unconstitutional "projects" how dare you call the Raptor pricey, asshole. I can't even contemplate a TRILLION dollars. I doubt he can either. Once again I don't want to play "fair" I want to WIN.
Posted by: JohnE PFC U.S. Army at February 27, 2009 01:54 PM
Whoa JohnE, did you read carefully?
Posted by: Nick Byram at February 27, 2009 02:05 PM
Nick - your 5 reasons for defense spending are right on. Social(touchy feely) spending just gets us more welfare deadbeats. Defense and space spending enhances our daily lives with new technology as well as defending us from potential enemies.
Posted by: TomR at February 27, 2009 04:09 PM
Osama's "gift" to Hamas and Gaza would buy 3 raptors. WTF
Bob A.
Posted by: Bob A at February 27, 2009 05:45 PM
What would have been a recession is now on it's way to becoming a serious depression.
So the lessen we learn is that when we are in debt, spend more so that we are even deeper in debt.
Way to go, Demonrats.
Posted by: Harry at February 27, 2009 09:07 PM
Thank you everyone so much for your comments and your input, it means a lot to me. I learn a lot from all of you and your sharing like you do is awesome.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 27, 2009 11:42 PM
