{"id":1880,"date":"2013-07-18T10:21:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T16:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2013-07-18T10:21:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T16:21:26","slug":"chuck-hagel-cuts-defense-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/chuck-hagel-cuts-defense-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Hagel Cuts Defense Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alfred James, The Guardian
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

Although it may be more symbolic than substantive, Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel has ordered a 20 percent cut in the top brass and highest paid civilians in the military.\u00a0 The Pentagon budget has grown with virtually no restriction; now Chuck Hagel is making his first attempt to cut defense spending.<\/p>\n

Hagel is ordering the elimination of 3,000 to 5,000\u00a0jobs\"icon1<\/a>\u00a0by 2019.\u00a0 That may seem like a small number, compared to the present 2.1 million military personnel, and civilian employees employed by the Department of Defense, but it is the first cut to the military\u2019s budget in decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all relative for a bureaucracy that has hardly been touched by a human hand over the past decade,\u201d said Arnold L. Punaro, a retired Marine general and member of the Defense\u00a0Business\"icon1<\/a>Board, which advises the Pentagon on financial matters. \u201cBut a 20 percent cut is pretty dramatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagel was speaking at the Naval Air Station in\u00a0Jacksonville\"icon1<\/a>, Florida.\u00a0 He said the area of cuts would be the office of the Secretary of Defense, the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Pentagon.\u00a0 He did not further elaborate.<\/p>\n

Hagel also talked about Congress\u2019s failure to stop the Sequestration, which required a 37 billion dollar cut in defense spending.\u00a0 He acknowledged that these cuts would be a small part, and that others were necessary.\u00a0 He told the troops that \u201ceveryone will have to do their part.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cuts will not begin until 2015.<\/p>\n

Since September 11, 2001, defense spending has skyrocketed.\u00a0 History shows us that when the military\u2019s budget is increased, it becomes nearly impossible to reduce the numbers.\u00a0 The dollar amount of Hagel\u2019s measure is minimal, but the symbolism gives promise of more waste to be eliminated in the DOD budget.<\/p>\n

Although Hagel\u2019s words offer promise, past pledges by a Secretary of Defense never materialized.<\/p>\n

In 2010 Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a freeze on staffing in his office, the Joint Chiefs, and military combatant commands.\u00a0 That never happened.\u00a0 In fact, reports show that those positions were actually increased by 15 percent.<\/p>\n

Gates had also ordered the elimination of 6,000 jobs with the closure of the Norfolk-based Joint Forces Command.\u00a0 Again, reports show that most of those jobs were redistributed within the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alfred James, The Guardian click here for original article Although it may be more symbolic than substantive, Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel has ordered a 20 percent cut in the top brass and highest paid civilians in the military.\u00a0 The Pentagon budget has grown with virtually no restriction; now Chuck Hagel is making his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t