If the Obama administration and Congress really want to balance the budget, the military is going to have to lose some of its favorite gear, according to the co-chairmen of the White House's bipartisan deficit reduction commission. That means the Army needs to say goodbye to its troop-transport truck of the future, the Marines need to say goodbye to its long-planned swimming tank, and a third of the military's stationed in Europe and Asia have to say goodbye to their bases.
The commission's co-chairmen, former GOP Senator Alan Simpson and Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, go much further than Defense Secretary Robert Gates in cutting the defense budget. Gates wants to trim out $100 billion in overhead and administrative costs over five years and put that cash back into shipbuilding, gun-buying and plane-purchasing.
But the two chairman, who released their non-binding plan this afternoon, want to put that money "to deficit reduction instead," with an annual savings of $28 billion. And there's much more on the chopping block: their plan calls for reducing $100 billion from the Defense Department's non-war budget, a little less than 20 percent. War-related expenses aren't touched.
The Marines get hit hard. Their V-22 Osprey helicopter? Gone. Their swimming tank, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle -- the one that the Senate recently criticized for cost overruns? Gone. Its version of the F-35 fighter jet? Gone. Oh, and the commission echoes Gates in questioning whether the country needs the service to storm beaches anymore. Happy 235rd birthday, guys!
It's not just the Marines. The Army may be about to announce a new design for its planned Ground Combat Vehicle, the truck it wants to replace the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, but the co-chairmen say not to bother: "wartime funding enabled the Army to upgrade its current tactical vehicle fleet earlier than anticipated," so it's not necessary. The Air Force and the Navy can make do with F-16s and FA-18 Super Hornet jets rather than half of the troubled F-35sthey wanted to buy. All in all, the commission thinks it can save $20 billion annually with these and other cuts.
But that still doesn't get to $100 billion in annual savings. Bowles and Simpson want military non-combat pay frozen at 2011 levels for three years, which will result in $9.2 billion in savings -- including "$1.6 billion in less retirement accrual," sure to be controversial. A third of the 150,000 troops stationed in Europe and Asia should come home, leaving "a substantial military force on both continents" and saving $8.5 billion. The research, development and testing budgets should be cut by a tenth, another $7.5 billion. Military healthcare premiums should rise by an... unspecified amount for another $6 billion. Slash defense contracting and save another $5 billion. And so on.
None of this is binding. It'll take the support of 14 out of 18 commission members to even get Congress to consider Simpson and Bowles' proposals, something congressional leaders have pledged to do. The full commission has until December 1 to vote on the plan, and as David Kurtz writes, the commissioners don't seem pleased with what Simpson and Bowles are offering. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called the national debt the single greatest threat to national security. Now to see what resistance develops to Bowles and Simpson's effort at confronting it.
Photo: USMC
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