Robert Gates Orders Billions In Domestic Pentagon Cuts To Pay For Wars Abroad

New York Times:

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered the military and the Pentagon's civilian bureaucracy to find tens of billions of dollars in annual savings to pay for war-fighting operations, senior officials said Thursday.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[SamEllison]

01:51 PM on 06/04/2010

Let's see how patriotic the generals in the Pentagon are.
The fighting men and women or the defense contractors?
Maybe the banksters will give us a betting line?

[ohyes]

12:52 PM on 06/04/2010

The P-NAC'er are at it again.

[deltalady]

12:52 PM on 06/04/2010

Healthcare costs? Well, if Congress would quit selling us out to the healthcare industry, maybe costs wouldn't be so high. And why does Halliburton charge the US govt MORE for its services, not give us a break on the costs since they seem to have exclusive use of the Federal Treasury? The cost of privatization is the issue here, not the cost of the Army, Navy, etc. Our armed forces have been able to fight on their on through many wars and conflicts. It wasn't until the Cheneys of this world and his kind that realized they could make huge amts of $$ providing services that the US govt had been previously able to do at a smaller cost. The next step is start bad-mouthing the govt as ineffective and too bloated, to make them seem excessive, wasteful, and incompetent. We didn't have this type of overpriced, bid-rigging and the excessive costs associated with it til the neo-cons figured out how much they could make on war, and lost all control in their effort to turn themselves into kings.

[FeO2E]

12:23 PM on 06/04/2010

the best way to save money is to end the wars

[peterg76]

12:20 PM on 06/04/2010

Hopefully there won't be any large-scale ecological disasters at home that the army might be needed for.

[Meggie]

12:07 PM on 06/04/2010

About time. Better yet, let's get rid of those Bush taxcuts and pay for it all asap.
But then let's get out of those wars immediately and start rebuiling our military.
The privatization of another government function is not good. We're sitting idly by while we turn faschist. It's disgusting how easily they're doing it.

[haval2]

12:02 PM on 06/04/2010

How about this nutty idea...bring the troops home now. End the futility and death in Afghanistan and the charade in Iraq. End the pussyfooting in Somalia too. Cut the high priced soldiers for hire from the payrolls NOW.

[jasongrundy]

11:54 AM on 06/04/2010

Finally!!! The military is the biggest waste of Federal dollars...so much needs to be cut out.

[Meggie]

12:09 PM on 06/04/2010

Didn't say they were spendingless. Just says they're privatizing our military. Cut the government stuff they have here so they can pay Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater/Xe...Same money, much less to show for it.

[john frodo]

11:49 AM on 06/04/2010

Nation building while the homeland fall apart. The absurdity of this would spawn at least 2 Kurt Vonnegut novels.

[scooperss]

11:46 AM on 06/04/2010

Good for him. Cut off the money to the ones who are profiting from them and the wars will end sooner.

[Meggie]

12:09 PM on 06/04/2010

The ones profiting ARE in AFghanistan and Iraq! Private corporation employees outnumber American troops.

[NoPCZone]

11:40 AM on 06/04/2010

We could save a truckload by stopping the duplication. There is a tremendous amount of overlap between services sot egregiously within the Navy Department. Much of the aviation that exists in the Navy and Marine Corps should be done by the USAF. Some of the aviation done by the Army should be done by the USAF. The Marines should revert to the Naval Infantry they are supposed to be and stop training to be a second Army. There should be one Medical,Signal, Transportation, Logistic and Personnel command- not one for each branch of service.

[chicagurl]

12:00 PM on 06/04/2010

Agreed. There's a ton of waste there and it's about time they start doing something about it.

[azhermit]

11:37 AM on 06/04/2010

The USA Schutzstaffel... coming to your neighborhood in the near future. Sieg heil Herr Gates!

[gorgol]

11:32 AM on 06/04/2010

Horrific Unemployment, double dip recession maybe coming...Disaster in the Gulf...so, we're going to cut back BILLIONS on Defense..and USE IT IN AFGHANISTAN....a virtual DRUG CARTEL..while this country goes down the TOILETTE....GREAT IDEA GATES..AND OBAMA>..
AGAIN< you turn your back on MAIN STREET....and give our tax money to a "corrupt Regime" overseas..GOOD GRIEF..THIS COUNTRY HAS GONE NUTS.

[13th Generation American]

11:28 AM on 06/04/2010

Maybe we should subcontract these wars to the Teabaggers and Militias? I'd love to see the looks on their faces if that happened.

[BowlingForRevenge]

11:27 AM on 06/04/2010

If we want to fight these wars we need to pay for these wars.
Our men and women warriors should NOT pay the cost as they are paying the price.
Pentagon civilian employees will just have to pay for the protection like the rest of us have.
If ya don'y like it retire. It only takes 5 years employment to take early retirement in these government job.