Center for American Progress Recommends The Following Defense Spending Cuts

August 13, 2011

Redirect the Defense Department’s planned efficiency savings to reduce the baseline defense budget ($133 billion through 2015).

Roll back post-September 11 efforts to grow the ground forces and reduce the number of civilian DOD personnel concomitant with the reduction in military end strength ($39.16 billion through 2015).

Reduce active-duty troops in Europe and Asia by one-third ($42.5 billion through 2015).

Cancel the V-22 Osprey program ($9.15 billion through 2015).

Reform military health care ($42 billion through 2015).

Limit procurement of the Virginia-class submarine and DDG-51 destroyer to one per year, and limit procurement of the littoral combat ship to two vessels per year ($20.04 billion through 2015).

Cut procurement of the Navy and Marine F-35 Joint Strike Fighter variants ($16.43 billion through 2015).

Institute an across-the-board reduction in research, development, test, and evaluation funding ($40 billion through 2015).

Reform the military pay system as the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation recommends ($13.75 billion through 2015).

Cancel procurement of the CVN-80 aircraft carrier and retire two existing carrier battle groups and associated air wings ($7.74 billion).

Cut the U.S. nuclear arsenal to 311 operationally deployed strategic nuclear weapons ($33.72 billion).

PantslessProgressive elaborates on the political backdrop:

a series of charts in “A Return to Responsibility,” a report by the Center for American Progress, shows that it is Republican presidents, not Democrats, who have mandated significant cuts in defense spending. Eisenhower cut 27 percent overall, Nixon 29 percent, and President Bush H.W. Bush, who served only one term, 17 percent. Even Ronald Reagan, who lavished money on the Pentagon with the express purpose of bankrupting the Soviets, cut the budget by 10 percent during his second term. The great exception to the rule is George W. Bush, who increased spending by an astonishing 70 percent during his tenure. If we include the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States now spends $700 billion a year on defense, a figure that, translated into constant dollars, was last reached in World War II.

12:13pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnx8GbfV0

(Notes: 17)