Gates Shifts Military Spending: 'Not Every Defense Dollar is Sacred'

When I read stuff like this, I'm almost apoplectic. Everywhere else we hear screaming about all the horrible, untenable, break-the-bank public pension obligations. But not a peep about these publicly funded pension plans that are literally twice what the next best public pension gives. Ditto for the publicly funded healthcare. Then you look at the rest of the numbers... and you realize that most other federal spending is measures in millions or tens of billions, while the Pentagon figures are 10 to 100 times as more for each line item.

But OMG there are all these threats! We've got to FEAR spend more UNCERTAINTY or DOUBT... or, what? Exactly?

I wish I could drive home the point eloquently without invoking Godwin's Law.

What they need to do is reduce adminstrative costs and reduce the number of people at the Pentagon not our military personnel. I'm beginning to question Mr. Gate's compentency.

Ok I will try again, I tried to post this yesterday. I personally feel that Our soldiers past, present and future , should recieve the same pay and same health care our senators and and congress recieve. FOr those who have served, are serving and will serve deserve NO less than our elected officials for they are the ones who put their lives on the line literally.. I am a PROUD MILITARY BRAT.

I can not believe some of the things this article says! 206,000 PER ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER? My husband is an active duty soldier. He makes about 35,000 a year including all his allowances (housing, b.a.s) Yes we get our health care for virtually free, but even with 2 young children we only go to the drs a few times a year. Saying that 1.4 million military members is enough is crazy too.. The coast guard and the navy do almost nothing in the war on terror. If we have too many military personel then why do we have soldiers deploying 4,5 and even 6 times while some havent ever went? How about we cut congress' pay and our stupid presidents? Or maybe stop letting people live off of welfare,food stamps etc. Make them get off their lazy butts and get jobs! Just that alone would save billions of dollars! The military deserves every thing they get. The military members and their families sacrifice everything for this government and this country and this is how people want to repay them?

The whole idea of reducing troop sizes in the military is a complete joke! Our military is already extremely over-extended. My ex-husband has been on four year-long deployments since 2001, and he's getting ready to deploy again this summer. He's spent half of our son's life overseas, working to protect our country, with only one year at home to recover from the strain and stress of deployment. Taking money away from hard-working soldiers, or reducing the amount of soldiers available for deployment, is NOT the answer.

Just wondering how many of these decisions makers have
a personal interest in 2000 contractors?
Could there thoughts be clouded with the idea of
direct or indirect personal gain?

We need to support our military, not the lifestyle of
Bureaucrats and lobbyist.

Okay , we haven't done anything with military personel since 1991, they were the first downsizing, Switched to part time military, and that worked out just great right??????Not enough troops to fight two small wars, Iraq and afganistan, keep sending the same ones back again and again. What happened with that savings?????? Did it go to the private army of black water to keep coporartions like Haliburton safe in a war zone or just lost in the military industrial conplex(corporations) ?????? Didn't we just have a reality check with north korea, they were backed by china, we were fighting the chinese there in the early 1950s. Remember how communism was the boogie man, now they are our best buds right????????????Remember the axis powers, and the japanese and the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the japanese were our buds too back then, Has the world realy changed that much????????????Our world has, we are a poorer nation and a weaker one now that our manufacturing has been shipped to china. Yeah only a fool would go after the rich corporations who charge 1600.00 for a hammer, 5000.00 for a toilet seat, let cut back on personel, the most important part of any military, the infantry and the marines. Let just sit here and have them read the constitution to us, , as they dismanle america and sell out the people. .

Bring the troops back home; bomb hell out of Iran and N.Korea and put the troops on the Mexican border With orders "shoot to kill"
Then ship all illegals back to their own country. That way we save about 500 million dollars a year.
Pelosi won't like this idea because she woukd have to send all her servants to their respective countries

U.S. congressional concentration on self-centered reelection activities, rather than on performing duties essential to keeping the nation solvent and acceptably operational on a pay-as-you-go basis, has squeezed us into a black hole filled with red ink and serious "near unmanageable" penalties of all kinds. Bankruptcy of the nation is inevitable unless drastic steps are taken to stop the spending of borrowed dollars that enriches adversaries and impoverishes the taxpayer. If there is to be hope of a future, then we must regain the ability to manufacture product at competitive cost within our shores. This means training workers, not training military personnel. The industrial revolution made America great. Industrial revolution has made China great. What's the mystery of it all, for our best and brightest to see clearly, having escaping attention?

Budget cuts always fail because congress has no balls to do what it right. They are to afraid of upsetting the voters and not getting reelected to their posh jobs. We should withdraw from the UN. We don't need them and this would save billions. In these troubled time, we can not afford to cut military spending.
The one budget cut that would save the most money would be to cut the entitlement programs. Put these lazy asses to work doing the jobs the illegals do now. This will not happen, because congress would loose votes. Until congress is willing to grow and set of cajones, nothing of significance will occur.