Dec 14, 2011
Defense Drumbeat
The Hill confirmed yesterday what Armed Services Committee Republicans have been warning about for months: The cost of the first wave of Budget Control Act defense cuts is more expensive than anticipated.
In "The Pentagon’s ever-growing budget-cut estimate now at $492 billion," John T. Bennett reports:
- ..."Weeks after Congress passed the debt-reduction law, Defense Department officials said the actual effect of the $350 billion in national defense cuts it mandated would be a $460 billion cut over a decade.
"Then, on Nov. 22, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) revealed the effect would be even more harsh on the Pentagon budget.
"'I’m told it’s now $489 billion,' the chairman said in a primetime CNN interview.
"A U.S. official, that same evening, confirmed the $489 billion figure in an email to The Hill.
"Fast-forward to Friday, and the figure continued to swell.
"The expected cut likely will total $492 billion over a decade, David Berteau, a defense analyst and former Pentagon official who still has ties to the five-sided building, said Friday."
112th Congress