Homestead mailing list

[tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

More also will be spent on developing foreign language

capabilities.

tvoivozhd---no combat or occupation group of any size

should lack the language ability to speak with prisoners

or an enemy civilian populace---insane to lack language

capability.

The budget includes $1.9 billion to begin paying for a new

round of military base closings.
that capability.

tvoivozhd---the worst, most inexcusable waste in a

military budget is to keep a useless base open for its

golf course---get rid of the damned things as quickly as

possible.

The F/A-22 program will be halted in 2008 after 179 planes

are built - 96 short of the Air Force's goal

tvoivozhd---I love having the best fighter plane in the

world, but wafare is definitely moving to unmanned

equipment of all kinds---need to be there fustest with the

mostest.



Feb 7, 2005
Bush's Proposed 2006 Defense Budget Would Buy Fewer

Weapons but Put Focus on Unconventional Wars
By Robert Burns
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) - The $419 billion defense budget that

President Bush submitted to Congress on Monday would buy

fewer planes, ships and submarines than the Pentagon

previously planned, but it puts extra emphasis on anti-

terror commandos and expands the Army and Marine Corps.

Spending for the budget year that starts Oct. 1 would be

4.8 percent higher than the current defense budget,

although neither year's budget includes the billions spent

for war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq is

expected to cost $100 billion this year and a similar

amount in 2006; that money is authorized and spent through

a separate budgeting process.

The defense budget under President Bush has grown rapidly

since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which led

to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban

and hunt down leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network,

but the Iraq war has been the more costly enterprise.

In order to make room for the extra costs of warfighting,

the Pentagon has cut billions from planned spending on the

Air Force's high-priority fighter jet program, the F/A-22,

as well as Navy shipbuilding. The F/A-22 program will be

halted in 2008 after 179 planes are built - 96 short of

the Air Force's goal, and the Navy will get only four new

vessels - one submarine and three ships - instead of the

six that the Pentagon had said a year ago it would fund in

the 2006 budget.

Military personnel would get a 3.1 percent pay raise, and

pay for Pentagon civilians would rise 2.3 percent.

Steven Kosiak, a budget expert at the private Center for

Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said it is unlikely

that Congress will make any net reductions to Bush's

budget proposal for 2006.

"However, over the longer term, once a decision is made to

address the ballooning federal deficit, history strongly

suggests that cuts in defense spending - or at a minimum

slower rates of growth in defense spending - will be part

of the solution adopted," Kosiak said.

The budget includes $1.9 billion to begin paying for a new

round of military base closings. Pentagon recommendations

on which bases to close will be presented to an

independent commission in May. The Pentagon expects to

spend another $5.7 billion on this process in 2007,

although at a future point the closures are expected to

save billions of dollars.

The budget does not include funds to pay the estimated $

286 million it will cost to retroactively increase death

payments, known as "gratuities," to the families of

military personnel killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan

wars. Those payments will rise from $12,420 to $100,000

per family. The money will come from a supplemental budget

request to be submitted later.

Among other highlights of Bush's proposed $419 billion in

defense spending:

- Special operations forces, including Navy, Air Force and

Army commandos, get $4.1 billion, in part to pay for

hiring an extra 200 civilians and 1,200 military

personnel, including four platoons of Navy SEAL commandos.

More also will be spent on developing foreign language

capabilities.

- The weapons buying budget shrinks by $100 million, to $

78 billion. Last year at this time the Pentagon said it

intended to increase the procurement budget by $2 billion,

rather than shrink it. The Army would take the biggest

cut, about $2.7 billion, while the Navy would get a $1.2

billion increase.

- Spending on defenses against attack by chemical or

biological agents would be $1.6 billion in 2006 and $9.9

billion over the 2006-2011 period covered by the Pentagon

budget plan. That's $2.1 billion more than the Pentagon

had previously planned.

AP-ES-02-07-05 1017EST

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking

/MGBAB28TW4E.html

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