The Pentagon's massive $534 billion budget request could force deep cuts elsewhere

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-seeking-bigger-budget-pentagon-keeps-wary-eye-on-risk-of-cuts-2015-2



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon decision to seek a 2016 budget that far exceeds federal spending caps poses the risk of a big across-the-board funding cut like the one that forced the department to put civilian workers on unpaid leave two years ago.

But defense officials say the department will not repeat some of the decisions it made in 2013 that exacerbated the problem once the automatic cuts, known as "sequestration," went into effect nearly halfway through the fiscal year.

"We just kept spending as though sequestration wasn't going to happen," Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told reporters this week. This year, he said, "if it's not clear that sequestration is done, we will start being defensive and we will start making sure we are better prepared for it."

Work and Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord both said the department currently is focused on convincing lawmakers the $534 billion budget, which is nearly $36 billion above federal caps, is necessary to modernize the force after 13 years of war and several years of declining defense spending.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-seeking-bigger-budget-pentagon-keeps-wary-eye-on-risk-of-cuts-2015-2#ixzz3RcaEs8v2

[Turbineguy]

1. As long as it doesn't reduce

prisons.

As everybody knows, we could use more homeless, hungry children, wobbly bridges, potholes in the streets and general misery.

That's why we elect republicans.