The Men Who Really Run The Pentagon -- Foreign Policy
Bob Gates wrestled the defense budget back from the Joint Chiefs. Chuck Hagel is handing it back.
Before Chuck Hagel was nominated to be secretary of defense about a year ago, he made a reputation for himself as a independent Republican politician who described Pentagon spending as "bloated." In office, however, the former Nebraska senator has argued that the Pentagon should be rescued from historically minor and appropriate reductions. In doing so, he seeks to reverse one of the few real reforms that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates before him enforced on high spenders inside the Pentagon and in Congress.
Hagel and the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Sylvia Mathews Burwell, say they want to revive the old "wish list" process in which the Joint Chiefs of Staff used to connive with each other and Congress, behind the back of secretaries of defense and OMB, to make additions that couldn't cut the mustard in the regular budget review process.
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My Comment: A sobering analysis on who is "really" running the Pentagon now. My only beef on this post is that there is no mention of what Leon Panetta did when he headed the Pentagon.
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