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View Full Version : FoxNews: Senate passes $662B Defense spending bill, first Defense cut since Clinton



Little-Acorn
12-15-2011, 05:24 PM
Fox News has sent out an email alert saying that the Senate has now followed the House in passing a $662B Defense spending bill.

If true, this is the first cut in Defense spending since the Clinton administration.

Past Defense spending ($billions), from http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s047a.xls :

2011 $768.2 (estimate)
2010 $693.6
2009 $661.0
2008 $616.1
2007 $551.3
2006 $521.8
2005 $495.3
2004 $455.8
2003 $404.7
2002 $348.5
2001 $304.7
2000 $294.4
1999 $299.3

The $662 billion authorized by this bill, amounts to a 13.5% cut from the amount spent in the 2011 fiscal year.

Note that this is a genuine CUT, not a Washington-style "slight reduction in the rate of increase". We'll actually SPEND LESS next year, than we did this year. If this bill holds.

Now that Defense (a Federal function authorized by the Constitution) has been cut, when can we expect to see matching cuts in Social Security, Medicare, OSHA, EPA, ATFE (none of which are mentioned anywhere in that document), etc.?

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/15/congress-poised-to-pass-massive-defense-bill

Congress Poised to Pass Massive Defense Bill

Published December 15, 2011
Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Congress neared completion of a massive defense bill Thursday with lawmakers fiercely defending provisions on suspected terrorists against criticism that it would infringe on Americans' constitutional rights.

The Senate was poised to vote on the measure and send it to President Obama for his signature. The bill would authorize $662 billion for military personnel, weapons systems, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and national security programs in the Energy Department for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The legislation is $27 billion less than Obama wanted and $43 billion less than Congress gave the Pentagon this year, a reflection of deficit-driven federal budgets, the end of the Iraq war and the drawdown in Afghanistan.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the House voted 283-136 for the measure late Wednesday.

KarlMarx
12-15-2011, 06:18 PM
Most people think that most of the defense budget is used to buy weapons. Not so. I believe that if you look, most of the defense budget goes to paying soldiers, paying pensions, and healthcare costs.

I believe that in a few years, the trend will reverse. Whenever defense is cut for a long time, something happens that gets people's attention and defense spending increases as a result. For instance, 9/11... that got people's attention... in the 1970s, the Iranian Hostage Crisis and our inability to do anything about it, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the fall of the Shah of Iran... that got people's attention.

ConHog
12-15-2011, 07:20 PM
Anyone who has served can tell you that the military definitely wastes money, but why should defense department be the only area that sees cuts?

fj1200
12-16-2011, 02:51 AM
Easy pickin's.