By Benjamin H. Friedman
Along with Chares Knight of the Project on Defense Alternatives, I have just published commentary on the National Interest’s website about President’s Obama’s proposed $450 billion nine-year cap on war spending. We argue that a war cap—better yet a war tax—is a good idea, but this particular proposal is nearly useless. For one, it is [...]
Obama’s War Spending Cap is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Christopher Preble
Over the past few weeks, a number of pernicious myths have popped up regarding the Pentagon’s budget. Here I want to dispel these myths with an exhaustive, and exhausting, look at the details. The charts below, compiled with my colleague Charles Zakaib, should help. The President’s Budget officially requests $613.9 billion for the Pentagon FY [...]
The Pentagon Budget: Myth vs. Reality is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
Britain’s Liam Fox has a warning for America: Fix the debt problem now or suffer the consequences of less power on the world stage. The former U.K. secretary of state for defense visited Heritage to explain why America’s debt is a national security issue. >> Watch the full 45-minute speech, “Warning to a Superpower” Fox faced cuts to the armed forces in the United Kingdom during his tenure. He said the amount of interest Britain pays on its debt is larger today than its budget for defense. Fox explained that … More
By Benjamin H. Friedman
The 2013 Pentagon budget reflects the Obama Administration’s unwillingness to embrace strategic change that would allow far larger cuts. And by failing to propose such cuts, the Pentagon is refusing to avoid sequestration, the across-the-board cut of roughly ten percent from its accounts required under the Budget Control Act (BCA). In proposing a military budget [...]
The Pentagon’s Sequester Gamble is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Christopher Preble
Despite the noise that will accompany today’s defense budget release, a few essential facts should be kept in mind. Pentagon spending will remain well above the post-Cold War norm. It has not been slashed, and it will not be, not even in the unlikely event that sequestration takes effect (for more on this, see Ben [...]
The Pentagon’s New Budget is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Christopher Preble
While most news stories have accurately characterized the Obama administration’s proposed military spending cuts as “modest,” the Pentagon is planning significant reductions in the number of active-duty troops in the …
Civilian Personnel: The Missing Piece in the Pentagon’s Budget Puzzle is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Benjamin H. Friedman
The changes announced in the Pentagon’s new budget guidance are, from my perspective, mostly good news, but woefully insufficient. They show how even limited austerity encourages prioritization among weapons systems …
The New Pentagon Budget: Better, but Not Great is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Christopher Preble
It was clever, though a bit too opportunistic, for the president to begin and end his State of the Union address with references to Iraq, and the sacrifices of the troops. The war has been a disaster for the United States, and for the Iraqi people, of course. But the subject has always been a [...]
Obama’s State of the Union Signals Grand Strategy Status Quo is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Christopher Preble
The GOP presidential candidates will participate in yet another debate tonight from South Carolina in anticipation of the primary there on Saturday. I hope that the moderator, CNN’s John King, will bring up some of the major national security issues at hand, namely military spending. Out of all the GOP contenders, it is clear that [...]
Tonight on Stossel: Ron Paul, War, and Military Spending is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Christopher Preble
As David Boaz recently demonstrated, the jeremiads emanating from Washington over proposed cuts in military spending are unfounded. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon’s op-ed in today’s Washington Post is only the latest to decry the “damaging blow to our military” that will be done by “massive defense cuts.” Not only is Pentagon spending not at its [...]
Setting the Record Straight on Military Spending Levels is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
