Gates Leading Charge To Reign In Spending

Trimming the amount of money we spend on the military will be the next big issue for Americans to come to grips with. The rub is Senators want to bust the budgets on programs that don't work to save jobs for their constituents.



The endless amounts of money are not there anymore. Limitless spending on missile systems that don't work and fighter planes we don't need will not will help the US move forward:

As [Defense Secretary Robert] Gates put it, a lot of the cuts he'd imposed were "kind of no-brainers … poster children for an acquisition program gone wrong."

The other contentious debate was over the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter plane, which, to Gates and President Obama, is a textbook case of a Cold War weapon that has no place in the 21st-century arsenal. It is telling that not a single F-22 has flown a combat mission in any of the wars the United States has fought since the plane entered the fleet.

The Pentagon is not used to spending less, or wisely:

This is why the budget debate will be worth watching. Gates' proposals aren't particularly radical by most objective measures, but they're deeply threatening to the inside players. He's trying to change the culture in the Pentagon, and that's like shifting the building's foundations. It's going to be a great fight.

Pop quiz: How much is Obama cutting from Defense budget?
Answer: He's increasing it by $31 Billion.

Obama is cutting programs but still spending more, overall, on needed programs like Special Forces.

Still the conservatives will attempt to call Obama weak on defense. The GOP FAIL.

Source: Slate