Quote:
Originally posted by Agamemnon@Dec 30 2004, 09:07 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/politics...artner=homepage
Looks like the US military, along with every federal department, has been asked to find billions in space to alleviate the crushing burden of the US deficit. Seems a little awkward to me to be cutting $60 billion from the Armed Forces over the next 6 years, especially when it appears as though the US is committed militarily in Iraq for a good chunk of that time, if not all of it.
Is this the US restructuring the way it spends money on war, away from R and D and more on actual fighting (armour for vehicles)? Does it seem right that a US military that is already fairly strained for resources should be searching for budget short-cuts?
I'm a little confused about these cuts, as I thought the US just went through massive personal and corporate tax cuts, and appeared to have no problem spending money hand over fist. Fiscal responsibility seems a little late at this point in the game, but I'm sure its probably necessary to keep our neighbours to the South in good credit standing.
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Isn't the theory that governments overspend in poor economic times as stimulus and then cut back on expenditures when economies recover?
Its easy to spend but rare is the government that follows through with fiscal responsibility later.
Cutting $10 billion a year from a $420 billion military budget that had risen 41% in only three years really isn't a stretch. That's a cut of only 2.4 per cent.
One F-22, I think, costs about $1 billion, a pretty bizarre number when it might take a 2 cent seagull in an intake to bring it down. Then again, the USAF is probably still reeling from losing to the Indian Air Force and MiG's in maneuvers earlier in the year.
All in all, the overall cutbacks throughout the USA federal budget looks like a lame duck President beginning to prep his party's standing for the next election. And that would include a sharply lower American presence in Iraq by 2008, anywhere from zero to 50,000 soldiers in that country.
Cowperson