# Cutting 850 Billions of dollars....



## mike_cos (Aug 10, 2011)

Hard times.....

"The Pentagon is staring at the prospect of as much as $850 billion in budget reductions over the next 10 years and beyond — which, as DoD and service officials keep saying, will require some major strategic recalculations. Even now, we can only imagine what’s in the PowerPoint slide decks rocketing back and forth across the Building as staffs come up with alternatives and scenarios for absorbing those kinds of cuts. The only upside, from DoD’s perspective, is that it sounds as though the White House and Congress are sold on the idea of a grand strategy that lays out how to move forward and where to accept risks.

Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2011/08/01/what-could-austerity-americas-defense-posture-look-like/#ixzz1Uf9PLGVo 
DoDBuzz.com


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## Marauder06 (Aug 10, 2011)

That is really, really going to hurt.  10 years sounds like a long time, but in an bureaucracy as massive and complicated as the DoD, it really isn't.  If we're not careful we're going to be left with a very, very limited force-projection package.  That's going to be dangerous for national defense.


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## TLDR20 (Aug 10, 2011)

To think that we are going to get out of the goat-fuck we are in without cuts to defense is crazy. It has to happen. It sucks but it has to happen.


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## Marauder06 (Aug 10, 2011)

Cutting the defense budget is fine.  Eviscerating it is bad economically, politically, and socially.


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## TLDR20 (Aug 10, 2011)

I can name a few ways the budget could be cut off the top of my head, not affecting defense at all. Maybe a few hundred million off the top of my head.


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## Servimus (Aug 10, 2011)

Any serious cuts to spending are going to include defense spending simply due to the fact that that will be the only way to get Democrats to agree with the cuts.


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## AWP (Aug 10, 2011)

Leon Panetta....


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## Marauder06 (Aug 10, 2011)

How much is the DoD budget to begin with?


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## AWP (Aug 10, 2011)

Marauder06 said:


> How much is the DoD budget to begin with?



Typical Intel O....someone else does the collecting, he'll tell us what he thinks. 

http://comptroller.defense.gov/budget.html

The FY 2012 request made by the DOD is $670.9 billion.


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## Servimus (Aug 10, 2011)

Marauder06 said:


> How much is the DoD budget to begin with?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

Wiki says DoD alone gets $663.7 billion FY2010


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## Manolito (Aug 10, 2011)

2010 budget was 663.8 Billion and I am having trouble ferreting out all of the additional funds authorized by congress.
2001 budget 568.6 Billion
2000 budget 528.0 Billion
I am sure that there is a lot of fat that can be considered for cutting. Until congress changes the way DOD is funded we will always be full of waste. As each of you know at the end of year if you have not spent your entire budget you lose some funding in the next year so all kinds of things are purchased that never were needed. Allow Units to save last years budget and carry it into the next year and you will see a big change in how we spend our money. Stand up individual units that perform a specific function and quit trying to make every unit capable of doing everything. Get the brass to understand the cold war is over it is time to move forward in a new world using new tactics and funding. Pass a constitutional amendment that does not allow the military to be used as a socio economic rebuilding force. Fight the war and come home let the loser rebuild their country the way they want not how we think it should be.


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## Marauder06 (Aug 11, 2011)

So how are we going to get $850 billion in cuts from a budget of under $700 billion?


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## mike_cos (Aug 11, 2011)

Marauder06 said:


> So how are we going to get $850 billion in cuts from a budget of under $700 million?


cutting personnel?....


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## Swashbuckler (Aug 11, 2011)

Marauder06 said:


> So how are we going to get $850 billion in cuts from a budget of under $700 *million*?



Billion, not million; I see what you did there ... Regardless, $850 billion cut _over 10 years_, $700 billion dollar _annual_ budget. $85 billion cut out each year for ten years is another way to look at it, although I realize that's not how the cuts will be applied.

*edit*  Wait a minute... I just got trolled didn't I :-|


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## mike_cos (Aug 11, 2011)




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## Marauder06 (Aug 11, 2011)

Swashbuckler said:


> Billion, not million; I see what you did there ... Regardless, $850 billion cut _over 10 years_, $700 billion dollar _annual_ budget. $85 billion cut out each year for ten years is another way to look at it, although I realize that's not how the cuts will be applied.
> 
> *edit* Wait a minute... I just got trolled didn't I :-|



typo on my part- I went back in and fixed my original post.


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## Servimus (Aug 11, 2011)

I think this number is also based on what would happen if this new Super Congressional Committee formed by the Debt Resolution were to fail to come to an agreement over what should be cut. Then automatic cuts would occur to defense and other things as well.

Let's hope they come to an agreement.


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## Swashbuckler (Aug 11, 2011)

Defense contractors aren't safe from a credit-downgrade either...



> The U.S. debt ceiling agreement signed into law Aug. 2 puts new pressure on defense companies, who will likely see shrinking profit margins over the next decade, and, in a worst-case scenario, a downgrade of their credit ratings, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.



http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=7359449


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## Manolito (Aug 11, 2011)

Mara if you look at multi year contracts being paid out on new equipment development you can see a lot of work potential. I am only familiar with one program The AAAV amphibious assault vehicle for the Marine Corps. When overruns and after they had gutted every other procurement program in the Corps they changed the name to Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. When all that money was gone and no more was allocated the whole program was dropped with nothing to show for ten years of big payments and doing without by the Marine on the ground. General Dynamics has bought over 50 companies during that ten year period I wonder where they got the money? I am waiting to see the NASA budget for 2012.


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