McJoan wrote an excellent diary on this topic. Please read it, if you have not already.
I'm just not understanding why the reported amounts for the 2010 Defense Department Budget appear to be a moving uphill faster than the Road Runner being chased by Wiley Coyote. I began to comprehend that going on this journey of discovery is akin to Alice going down the rabbit hole, without the benefit of "One pill makes you ......".
AP News informs that President Obama wants $33B over and above an increase to $708B for the 2010 Defense Department budget . The DoD says they asked for $663.8B in May of 2009. In December 2009 OFA and CNN reported the Senate approved $636B. War Resisters reports that 2009 military spending was a mind boggling $1.5 Trillion.
AP blockquote below the fold
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department next year, The Associated Press has learned.
I keep reading that we can not afford increases in domestic spending, like on extending health care to more Americans. The government military spending budget keeps ballooning while those of us in real America are struggling to keep a roof over our heads. I don't hear any conservatives complaining about this disparity. Reducing military/security spending is apparently not on President Obama's to do list.
OFA has a link to the President's roasting of the opposition. There is also an opportunity to ask the President a question. A conference call is planned for the President to answer select questions that have been submitted. My question is related to reducing, not increasing the military budget. How do we frame the message that increased military spending creates a security risk on the home front?
The DoD's gift list is filled with all their favorite things. I'm sure I missed the brown paper packages tied up with strings. Probably hidden somewhere under the WMD, or maybe the drones. Can't expect the New Military to deck themselves out in yesterday's fashions. Stopping those Terrorists from sending communications using carrier pigeons requires sophisticated , pigeon GPS blocking technology. (What's the best method to capture or kill an enemy pigeon?) There's even a little money for shopping, labeled unexpected threats.
President Barack Obama today sent to Congress a proposed defense budget of $663.8 billion for fiscal 2010. The budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) includes $533.8 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund base defense programs and $130 billion to support overseas contingency operations, primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The proposed DoD base budget represents an increase of $20.5 billion over the $513.3 billion enacted for fiscal 2009. This is an increase of 4 percent, or 2.1 percent real growth after adjusting for inflation.
The fiscal 2010 budget proposal will end the planned use of supplemental requests to fund overseas operations, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The inclusion of these expenses as a separate category in the department’s annual budget request will ensure greater transparency and accountability to Congress and the American people. The budget will also request funds in the base that were previously in supplementals for programs such as those supporting our military families and providing long-term medical care to injured service members.
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Fielding and sustaining 50 Predator-class unmanned aerial vehicle orbits by FY11 and maximizing their production. This capability, which has been in such high demand in both Iraq and Afghanistan, will now be permanently funded in the base budget. It will represent a 62 percent increase in capability over the current level and 127 percent from over a year ago.
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In today’s environment, maintaining our technological and conventional edge requires a dramatic change in the way we acquire military equipment. I believe this needed reform requires three fundamental steps. (followed by list of goals which I have not copied)
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I welcome the legislative initiative of Senators Levin and McCain to help address some of these issues and look forward to working with the Congress in this regard.
This budget will support these goals by increasing the size of defense acquisition workforce, converting 11,000 contractors and hiring an additional 9,000 government acquisition professionals by 2015 – beginning with 4,100 in FY10.
John McCain is my Senator. He IS the man who says we gotta quit screwing around and kill the pork barrel spending, part of the less government, cut the spending crowd of enthusiasts. I'm sure he'll notice the military's plan to add all those bean counters (government acquisition specialists) to the payroll. Then again, you notice the DoD specifically gives deference ,welcoming his legislative initiative, or is it mutual adulation?
The military industrial complex continues the march forward in spending, with Presidential approval. I will close with the often quoted former President Dwight Eisenhower.
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.