Oblama Will Cut Defense Budget $55 Billion This Year

By DemocracyRules

The word came down on Friday Jan 30. That’s about 11%.  More details on Monday.  Before the election, Obama said two things.

(1) Yes, for sure he would cut the military:

And furthermore he dislikes the military:

(2) Then, closer to the election, he denied he would cut the military budget.  "Obama adviser doesn't expect defense cuts."

Barney Frank predicted Obama would cut the defense budget 25%.  He could still be right, Obama is just getting started.  Clinton progressively cut the military budget 33%.   That’s the main way he balanced the budget in the '90's.

After 9/11, the deep cuts to the military became a serious problem because the US could not deploy enough troops to effectively wage war in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  Bush increased the budget by about 35%.

Before the election, Obama zoomed back and forth on missile defense like a Hamas rocket. The clip is quite funny, actually.

But now that he's in power, Obama has already suspended the anti-missile defense for Europe.  It was was supposed to counter any Iranian attack on Europe.  Russia constantly complained the US was building a missile shield against them.  So now they’re very happy.  But they’re not happy enough to renounce their illegal occupation of Georgia.

Obama has committed to “end” the “weaponization of space,” whatever that means.

He will cut many other programs which he decides are “unproved”.

Defense Secretary Gates seemed unprepared for this sudden budget cut.  On Jan 27, he spoke before the Senate Armed Services Committee, and told them the military was on track to significantly increase troop numbers. 

Gates also said, "One thing we have known for many months is that the spigot of defense funding opened by 9/11 is closing.”  However, I don’t see how Gates can effectively ramp up numbers for more ground action in Afghanistan while his budget is being slashed.

Pro Patria

Comments

[James R McKenna]

Thanks for all the information on this....have a great day Gina

[Tim]

Hello,
Great info. I can only hope that all of the military's gains are not lost. Great article.

[comsense08]

I have to wonder what kind of military we are actually going to have. Most military personnel are not in favor of Obama as the commander-in-chief, and cutting programs and budgets, most senior folks are going to leave.

People, this is not a good thing. It takes time and a lot effort to train up qualified military. It's not something you can just draft up when you need it! He needs to shut up, and take some lessons from people who know what they are doing before he guts the only security this nation has left.

I also bet the money taken from the military will be funneled over to his 250000 private security force. Can anyone say SS?

[waldo]

President Obama is perfectly correct in cutting the US military budget. 3/4 trillion dollars was wasted in Iraq (and that doesn't count looking after the thirty thousand wounded veterans for the rest of their lives) by the Bush military that costs 1/2 a trillion a year to run. The Bush administration has left an unprecendented national deficit - (currently $9,528,997,575,696), which has to be addressed.
In his role as Commander-in- Chief, Obama doesn't dislike the military, he's going to run it properly. His first task, closing the torture section of Gitmo is already initiated. The withdrawal from Iraq will be achieved in a speedy and appropriate way.
And while you're worrying whether he's president or not, he's doing a great job.

[BobC]

"However, I don’t see how Gates can effectively ramp up numbers for more ground action in Afghanistan while his budget is being slashed."

BHO was quite clear (at least occasionally) about it during the campaign: He intends to cut advanced weapons and systems and increase foot soldiers. In other words, more cannon fodder with less technical advantages. This will help accomplish the left's goal of causing massive American casualties in the event of any future action.

I have heard from ex-military friends about unspecified "actions" that the military is taking to avoid loss of readiness, in the case of an Obama adminstration. I was hoping that Gates was an indication that they were succeeding (perhaps by blackmailing BHO). Now, that looks less likely. Perhaps BHO won't be fully briefed on the true extent of "black" programs (we can hope).