Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Department Of Defense Budget Rumors -- Big Cuts Are Now Expected

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class David Wilbur assigned to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (Light) 51 performs post phase maintenance on a SH-60B Sea Hawk helicopter prior to flight operations aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82) while underway in the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 23, 2009. Lassen is also assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15 and is forward-deployed to Yokosuka, Japan. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brock A. Taylor, U.S. Navy. (Released)

Obama Camp Could Rock Military's FY-10 Budget With Big Changes -- Far East Cynic

Military officials who expected President Barack Obama’s team to make only minor revisions to the Bush administration’s fiscal year 2010 defense budget plan could be in for a shock, according to a Pentagon source and internal documents reviewed by sister publication Inside the Pentagon. The armed services’ FY-10 budgets could face far more radical changes than previously imagined, including major cuts, as the Defense Department prepares to start the Quadrennial Defense Review next month, driven by Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent call to rebalance DOD’s budget plans.

The shifting mood is evident in a Jan. 14 internal Navy bulletin that was issued to officials in Naval Network Warfare Command, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command and the N6 division of the office of the chief of naval operations, which handles net-centric requirements.

Citing recent meetings, the Navy bulletin warns officials that all bets are off and the service’s FY-10 budget plans — known as the program objective memorandum, or POM-10 for short — could soon see big adjustments.

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My Comment: President Obama and his allies in Congress are going to cut the U.S. Defense Budget big time. Philosophically and politically they see it to their advantage that if budget cutting is to occur, it will have to be the Defense Budgets.

Cutting elsewhere would only hurt their political base and the programs that they want to be implemented. Besides .... if the Defense Budget is cut it would only hurt their political enemies.

Democrat blue dogs may pick up a fight, but I doubt that they will be effective.

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