With all the talk of Sec. Gates hacking and slashing the DoD budget, one has to give into occasions of what if?
What if for instance, all the costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are rolled into the overall DoD budget of $536billion [which by the way is less than TARP at $750billion or the Stimulus Bill of $787 billion]. Suppose things heat up in both AOs? And the Pentagon goes asks Sec. Gates for a supplemental funding bill to cover the cost of increased ops tempo. He then takes it to President Obama. President Obama reviews the request, looks at the money already allocated to the DoD, looks at the climbing deficit, and says no.
Where would that leave all the American warriors? Just something to ponder.
6 comments:
Good question. Especially when contrasted with his willingness to publicly fun ACORN and its various octopus arms.
ACORN/change.gov is Barack's army, worth more to him than the real one.
Sometimes the way we ask a question will confuse and predetermine the answer, which will then be an incorrect one.
Start with your premise of "the Pentagon goes asks the SecDef for a supplemental.." The "Pentagon" is the DoD, and hence the SecDef is the voice of the Pentagon. The Service Chiefs as service chiefs propose budgets. The JCS (comprised of the Chiefs) runs operations, not through the Service Chiefs but through the combat commanders (Odierno, Petraeus, etc.)
The SecDef is a Cabinet member of the Obama administration, so Defense is not a supplicant of the Executive. Even if so, the "supplemental" is an appropriation and therefore an act of the Legislature. Obama may have leverage with his party in control of Congress, but that remains their sausage making enterprise, not the President's.
The thorny issue is whether Congress-critters with their election hanging in the balance will want to risk angering the parents of America with children in harm's way. That's always been touchy. They may posture, but they usually pony up the beans and bullets.
Gates' real job is to protect DOD from the Obama administration and leftist Democrats.
If he can at least preserve the framework of the most reliable and accomplished defense force in the world, he will have done his job well.
Colonel, thank you for correcting my errors.
I just hope we survive this potential hollowing out.
I had a few idiots at Flopping Aces suggest that the DOD cuts weren't cuts at all and that besides, it was Gates who was doing it as if he would be putting forward the same plan if Bush were still President.
I can't believe we are cutting missile defense at a time like this.
Believe it Mike, seems we got a crop of idjuts that maybe more stupid than the traitors who cut off South Vietnam.
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