Congressional Quarterly, May 17th, 2013: House Republican appropriators are preparing to write fiscal 2014 spending bills that would protect spending for the military and homeland security by making deep cuts to domestic programs. Continue Reading…
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News Articles > Deficit Commission, Social Security
Fox News editorial, May 15th, 2013: War spending is unproductive and inflationary….every district in the U.S. has pressing infrastructure, education, health and environmental needs, and the return on the taxpayer’s dollar is much higher when invested on these areas. Continue Reading…
Wall Street Journal, May 3rd, 2013: Sharp cuts in Pentagon spending are beginning to crimp U.S. military operations in Asia….The cuts are eating into pilots’ flying time, maintenance of aircraft and ships and popular community-outreach programs. Tightening has also led to the scaling back of some regional joint-exercise programs, considered an important part of Washington’s strategy to beef up military cooperation with Asian allies. Continue Reading….
The Nation, May 3rd, 2013: This month’s abysmal jobs number—165,000 new jobs in April, barely enough to cover new people coming into workforce—is a self-inflicted wound. Government austerity—(misguided tax policies) and spending cuts—is suffocating the economy, just when it needs air. Continue Reading…
Politico, April 28th, 2013: Democrats are now increasingly likely to revolt against GOP demands, which could include a dollar of spending cuts for each dollar increase in the nation’s spending limit. And it make execution of a ‘grand bargain’ on debt reduction — a pillar of Obama’s agenda and the subject of renewed talks between the White House and GOP senators — appear all but impossible. Continue Reading…
New York Times, April 5th, 2013: President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal. Continue Reading… .
Project on Defense Alternatives, April 4th, 2013: The Pentagon, White House, and Congress are all planning as if the defense budget will jump back next year like sequestration never happened….the Pentagon is expected to request $8.4 billion in FY14 funding for the troubled [F-35] — the same amount that had been planned before sequestration occurred. Continue Reading…
Foreign Policy, March 21st, 2013: the number of people outside the Pentagon who think long-term planning for a drawdown is necessary is growing and spreading across the political spectrum. Continue Reading…
Paul Krugman, New York Times, March 14th, 2013: Mr. Ryan is claiming that he can slash the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent, yet somehow raise 19.1 percent of G.D.P. in revenues….quite a few pundits and reporters have greeted his release with the derision it deserves. Continue Reading…
Wall Street Journal, March 12th, 2013: Paul Ryan on Tuesday offered his party’s most provocative fiscal framework in years, calling for Medicare and Medicaid overhauls and new limits on defense spending not previously endorsed by party leaders. Continue Reading…
The American Conservative, March 5th, 2013: “readiness” can only mean being ready to start another war….Sequestration seems to be the only way to force a debate in Washington about our grand strategy and about America’s real strengths and weaknesses…..It is the beginning of the real battle against a future of unending wars, loss of our own constitutional freedoms, the creation of new enemies abroad, a declining standard of living, and eventual loss of our Republic—replaced with a bankrupt empire. This is what the real fight is about. Continue Reading…
Foreign Policy’s “Sheathed Sword” blog, March 6th, 2013: The bill increases the funds for operations and maintenance by more than $10 billion….That doesn’t eliminate the sequester, but it raises the baseline from which sequester is measured for the accounts most directly affected. That gives some relief to the services, easing about 25 percent of the pain they see coming. Continue Reading…
New York Times, March 2nd, 2013: By mid-March, Senator Murray and her House Budget Committee counterpart, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, will produce broad blueprints for spending and tax policy over 10 years….[Ryan’s budget] will lock in the savings from the across-the-board cuts but will shift the targets away from defense. In contrast, Ms. Murray said, the Senate plan will undo the cuts beyond this fiscal year with a mix of tax increases and other spending reductions. Continue Reading…
Military.com, February 28th, 2013: “We have to take a step back and ask ourselves – what kind of Army do we need for the rest of the 21st Century?” he said. Continue Reading…
Washington Post “Post Politics” blog, February 26th, 2013: “….we can realize savings of at least $50 billion to $100 billion per year over 10 years in the Pentagon budget — without compromising national security,” reads the letter….Those signing the letter include conservative groups such as Americans for Tax Reform, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union, as well as left-leaning groups like the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), Credo and Progressive Democrats of America. Continue Reading…
Time, February 25th, 2013: The F-35 is a poster child for Pentagon profligacy in a new era of tightening budgets. Continue Reading…
New York Times editorial, February 24th, 2013: the truth is that the military budget not only can be cut, but should be cut. Continue Reading…
New York Post, February 14th, 2013: [Sequestration] trims not just fat, but muscle and bone, too. It’s going to be ugly. But as I’ve watched the Defense Department pull shameful stunts and listened to congressional blather attempting to block sequestration, this defense hawk has become one irate taxpayer. Continue Reading…
Business Week, February 6th, 2013: the next big budget battle due to arrive at month’s end—automatic spending cuts known as “sequestration—threatens to expose the rift between one wing of the party (antitax Republicans) and another (defense Republicans). Continue Reading….
Americans for Tax Reform (Grover Norquist’s outfit), Cost of Government Center, Downsize DC, National Taxpayers Union, R Street Institute, Republican Liberty Caucus, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and Taxpayers for Common Sense released a letter today calling for “eliminating outdated, Cold War-era weapons; cutting programs the military doesn’t even want; reforming military health care programs; and closing unneeded bases” to save $50-$100 billion a year.
Financial Times, January 23, 2013: , the eventual costs of caring for veterans of the Afghanistan war will exceed $1tn. To put these numbers into perspective, the debate surrounding the fiscal cliff has centred on expenditure cuts over 10 years of $1tn-$2tn. Continue Reading…
National Journal, January 21st, 2013: Defense cuts may be on the table in a new fiscal-cliff deal, as the deadline to avoid sequestration is just weeks away. National Journal’s National Security Insiders say: Go for it. A whopping 80 percent of Insiders said the defense budget, over the next decade, could be reasonably reduced by more than $100 billion. The biggest faction of Insiders, 35 percent, supported cuts between $100 billion and $300 billion. Continue Reading…
US News, January 16th, 2013: Cutting the defense budget absolutely can be done. In fact, it must be done. Continue Reading…
Washington Post blogs, January 7th, 2012: if you want to argue that our current deficits are the result of overspending, then the military budget and the wars need to be the center of your analysis. Continue Reading…
Politico, January 3?, 2013: [On Capitol Hill, Medicaid recipients] are viewed as greed-heads sucking up precious dollars that could be better spent on … defense contractors! Continue Reading…
Rep.s Ellison and Mulvaney, Huffington Post, December 21st, 2012: pursuing savings in the Pentagon’s budget must be one part of the larger–and critical–effort to improve our nation’s fiscal condition. Continue Reading…
Huffington Post, January 3rd, 2013: The first step in a national security reassessment might have been a meaningful examination of national priorities, matching strategies, and whether there are necessary resources to fulfill either. Continue Reading…
Public Accountability Initiative, December 19th, 2012: How the “Fix the Debt” Budget Lobby is Protecting Billions in Defense Contracts for its Corporate Backers. Continue Reading…
Campaign for America’s Future, December 19th, 2012: The President’s latest budget offer slashes a 95-year-old retiree’s Social Security benefits by more than nine percent — and trims the defense budget by less than one percent. Continue Reading…
Eleven Republicans and 11 Democrats called for “substantial defense savings” and cited recent studies that showed $55 billion a year could be cut without harming national security. Continue Reading…