Ignore Pete Hesgeth
The current House and Senate budget proposals both include defense increases of about $100-150 billion over ten years, or about $10-15 billion per year in nominal dollars. Toy Sec Def Hegseth is proposing a cut in defense spending of -$70 billion per year. Anyone who thinks the House and Senate will pass a bill with *any* defense cuts, let alone $70 billion in cuts, is in cloud coo-coo land.
The FY 2024 military budget was $824 Billion. A $15 Billion increase amounts to 1.8%, less than the current rate of inflation. Over ten years an increase of $150 Billion represents an annual increase of 1.6%, very likely less than inflation.
IOW the current proposals represent real cuts in the military budget.
Of course, we could all be defeatists and fail to acknowledge and applaud that progress, meager as it is. And the less public support there is, the less likely Pentagon budget cuts will be realized.
Fortunately, most Americans support Pentagon spending cuts, so maybe the defeatists won’t get their way.
@John,
Unfortunately, most Americans don’t support Pentagon spending cuts, so it is certain that those of us who want to see cuts won’t get their way.
FIFY
Poll: Most U.S. adults support Pentagon spending cuts | American Friends Service Committee
As DOGE uncovers DOD waste and fraud and as Trump and Hegseth continue to make the case for cuts to Ukraine aid and to “defense” spending, I expect public support for these cuts to rise, much to the chagrin of the defeatists.
@John,
LOL!! DOGE won’t uncover any waste and fraud for the simple reason that they’re not looking for waste and fraud. If they were, they would send in auditors instead of tech bro toy boys. That’s the reality, much to the chagrin of the dreamers.
Yes . . .
Neither Trump or Musk have uncovered anything new, Indeed if there is money to be made by a Trump industry, watch how fast he will turn away.
“Even before Chairman Sanders and Chairwoman Maloney requested this report, there was a long-documented history of waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon. In 2018, DOD reported to Congress that from fiscal years 2013 to 2017, over $6.6 billion had been recovered from defense contracting fraud cases. In 2020, the DOD Office of Inspector General reported that 395 of its 1,716 ongoing investigations – or approximately one-in-five – are related to procurement fraud.
Since 1995, DOD financial management has been on GAO’s High-Risk List of operations that are “vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement, or in need of transformation.” Congress mandates all federal agencies to comply with annual independent audits, but the Defense Department remains the only U.S. federal agency that is unable to pass a clean audit opinion – preventing GAO from expressing an audit opinion of the entire federal government.”
Sanders has been all over this for years now.
“New Study Finds DOD Efforts to Combat Waste and Fraud Are Incomplete and Inadequate”
@John,
LOL! So you found *one* poll from a pacifist organization. Meanwhile, Gallup, which has polled on defense spending for decades found the last time a majority thought we spent too much on national defense and the military was in 1969.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1666/military-national-defense.aspx
“Musk has been critical of wasteful spending at the Pentagon and of overbudgeted programs helmed by defense contractors, potentially aligning DOGE with progressive lawmakers who have long called to slash a defense budget that is approaching a trillion dollars per year.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) drew headlines when he said Musk was “right” about defense spending, because the Pentagon has “lost track of billions.”
“Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change,” Sanders wrote on the social platform X.
Other progressive lawmakers have also backed the opportunity to potentially work with DOGE on the Pentagon budget.” DOGE gains interest from progressives eyeing possible Pentagon cuts
Not everybody is a defeatist…
@John,
Hilarious! Musk is “critical” of waste but can’t be bothered to do anything about it. If he wanted it to change, he’d send in auditors. He hasn’t, so obviously he’s fine with it. So, BTW, is Congress, which will eventually pass a budget increasing defense spending.
And Bernie? Well, I believe he’s right, of course, but he’s a political nobody. He doesn’t even belong to a major political party.
As for progressives, they are sadly impotent, since neither Democrats nor Republicans listen to progressives.
It’s not defeatist to admit reality.
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.
Waste is somewhat subjective. Some may think feeding hungry children around the world is a waste while others think sending humans to Mars is a waste.
Fraud is usually a criminal or civil offense so that should be easy to quantify, expose and report as such. So far I have not heard of any.
I am not really sure what abuse is when it comes to government spending that doesn’t already qualify as waste or fraud. Anyone?
Technically, because the government is the issuer (creator) of money, it really can’t “waste” money. Governments can waste resources (labor, materials, energy) if those needed or can be put to better productive uses by the private sector.
@Mark,
As far as I can tell, “waste” is the epithet people apply to spending they don’t approve of.
Fraud could be exposed by the Trump/Musk Administration if they subjected units of government to audits. So far, no audits are being conducted AFAIK. Just cuts.
If everyone knew about the waste fraud and abuse at the Pentagon, why didn’t they do something about it? There’s a new sheriff in town and business as usual throughout the entire Federal government ended on Jan 20 2025.
Joe:
Have you ever talked to the VA outside of the nurses, NPs, VA benefit Representative, or/and an occasional doctor? You can’t get near them as you are filling out forms or talking to someone else to get what you wish to have. Write your congressman or women and see how far you get. There really is nobody.
I have long argued— 50 years and counting— that resources spent on defense could be better spent, but I do not think that the present administration is going to fulfill that wish.
First, they have eliminated USAID which was my vision of soft power helping people instead of bombing them into submission.
Second Trump is a Russian asset- whether willingly or as a result of Kompromat .
Third, there is too much money being paid to the military industrial complex to let this government tit go away — the rural voters who supported Trump do not have as much pull because almost half the USAID budget went to farmers. Finally, any savings from defense will benefit not only Russia and China but the US oligarchs who are counting on another tax cut.
@Terry,
Well stated! Thanks!
USAID budget:
What Does USAID Spend Money on? List of Potential Cuts (msn.com)
Scroll downs:
A significant portion of USAID’s funding went to Europe and Eurasia, primarily to support Ukraine’s war effort and reconstruction.
USAID provided assistance to about 130 countries in FY2023. The top 10 recipients were:
Ukraine is biggest single country! Ukraine exports huge amounts of grain. Jordan??
Paddy:
The gov. provided funds directly to Ukraine. The Newsweek comment makes little sense and has nothing to back the few words said about Ukraine,
@paddy,
Much or most of that money is spent in the US supporting US farmers and manufacturers. Most of the military equipment sent by the US to Ukraine was antiquated and wouldn’t have been used by US troops anyway. Soybean farmers in the US are going to be hurt by the USAID cuts, since they had been growing and selling to USAID programs.
That’s one thing many people don’t understand about foreign aid. It’s ultimately a welfare program for American producers.
Terry:
Nice comment. Long time since I have seen you around. Welcome back. You may remember me as run75441.
@ Terry, Amen!
One of the technology planks Musk’s wunderkinder propose is using blockchain to track the pedigree (evolutionary history of the specifications of a thing) of the thing the US government pays for in procurement contracts.
Blockchain is not just for bitcoins tracking from mine to current owner state. It is used to track a part number from the first delivery through repairs through modifications,……
Image looking at the specifications on the receiving report for ser # 8267 F-35A and tracking all the design specs that were failed their tests or were not tested…….
That said; back to this thread: we won’t know if Trump and Hegseth are serious about 40% cuts in real DoD until we see what Trump proposes to “raise the Army”, limited to two years’ expenditures by the US constitution. This is done with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) every other year. To get 40% Trump should cut 40% of everything in the authorization lines….
Suppose congress says “no”. Suppose Trump stumps. What do you have after two years’ authorization runs out?
No Army/Air Force.
With a weakly maintained navy because that is what the constitution says about the navy: maintain a navy. MAGA/strict constructionists may say “why do we have anything after the USS Constitution” up here in Charlestown?
@Paddy,
What DOGE is doing is gutting programs they don’t like according to Project 2025. They haven’t don’t any analysis and don’t know the futncionts of the departments they are cutting.
Joel:
DOGE is all supposition, conjecture, and innuendo.