It has been a busy winter for PDA with the long anticipated release of the Pentagon's strategic guidance in January followed by the FY2013 budget release in February. PDA prepared briefing materials for circulation to journalists, analysts, advocates and grass roots activists before each of these official events and was sought after for analysis and comment by journalists as demonstrated by the press citations listed below.
Here are the briefing materials PDA produced:
Defense Strategy Review: Does Obama Run Hot or Cold on Defense? When analyzing the budget request in 2013 dollars, Carl Conetta finds that the administration’s spending request is still far above the Cold War average of $443 billion per year. (2/13/12)
The Project on Defense Alternatives: Panetta Releases DoD "Austerity" Budget; Pentagon Retains Most of Post-1998 Increase. Carl Conetta examines the administration’s FY13 budget request in historical terms and finds that DoD spending, both under current law as well as under sequestration, would still be higher than the inflation-adjusted average for the Cold War years. (1/26/12)
Recent Press Citations
San Francisco Chronicle: Defense Cuts Are a Drop in the Bucket. The Chronicle’s Carolyn Lochhead surveys BPWG members Winslow Wheeler, Christopher Preble, and Carl Conetta for their thoughts on the recently released defense budget. (2/13/12)
Wall Street Journal: White House Proposes Cap on Wartime Spending. The White House has proposed a $450 billion cap on war fundingover the next ten years, and will use a portion of the savings to fund infrastructure investments domestically. However, should OCO funding spike in future years, it is unlikely that the lost savings would come out of the DoD base budget. (2/13/12)
National Defense: 2013 Defense Budget Rollout: Just the Opening Salvo. Sandra Erwin finds that the Pentagon’s budget request keeps military spending at historically high levels despite persistently high budget deficits, with Charles Knight commenting that the budget “does not signal a new era of ‘restrained military posture for the United States.’” (2/13/12)
Wall Street Journal: Military Faces Historic Shift. The Wall Street Journal covers reaction to the strategic review, with Charles Knight pointing out that the “first strategic priority of the United States is getting its economic house in order. Doing this means spending less on the military in coming years.” (1/6/12)
Congressional Quarterly: Defense Lobbyists, Contractors Begin to Speculate Where Cuts Will Hit. Frank Oliveri surveys defense analysts’ predictions on how the defense budget will be trimmed, with Charles Knight forecasting “I don’t think we’re at the end of this.” (1/6/12)
BBC: Pentagon Cuts: What Will the New US Military Look Like? Heather Hurlburt discusses potential policy changes that may emanate from the Pentagon’s strategy review, including decreased Army troop levels, while Charles Knight points out that a smaller Army would increase pressure on the National Guard and Reserves should a large scale counter-insurgency or ground war occur. (1/5/12)
Boston Globe: Pentagon Should Do More Cutting, Less Complaining About Budget. Citing PDA’s figure that the Pentagon has spent $32 billion on cancelled weapons systems, the Boston Globe editorial board urges DoD to be smarter about procurement decisions. (1/2/12)
Key Activities
PDA prepared a draft "bottom up" Reasonable Defense posture plan which Carl Conetta presented at Congresswoman Barbara Lee's request to the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Policy Summit meeting in Baltimore on January 19th. PDA is currently completing a full version of this post-Iraq/Afghanistan wars posture plan which will help progressives to have a strong and articulate position on national security looking forward. It also provides guidance to the nation on how to make deeper cuts in the military budget without the disruption built into the 'sequester' provisions of the Budget Control Act.
PDA worked with Progressive Congress and the CPC to organize a strategy and budget briefing for more than a dozen congressional offices.
PDA consulted with the office of Rep. Edward Markey on details of savings estimates for reducing the future number of strategic missile submarines as part of a comprehensive strategic nuclear force reduction legislation the congressman is introducing. Since 2010 when the Sustainable Defense Task Force proposed reducing the deployed strategic warhead force from 1550 in the New START treaty to 1000, we are gratified to have witnessed this issue open up with new attention to significant cuts.
New Resource Pages from PDA
· The Pentagon Budget and Jobs: How Does Defense Spending Rate for Job Creation?
· A Short Tour of Pentagon Financial Mismanagement, Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
PDA Reset Defense Bulletin
The Project on Defense Alternatives publishes a semi-weekly newsletter, which provides readers with the latest developments and news items pertaining to the reformulation of U.S. defense policy and budgeting. To subscribe to the PDA Reset Defense Bulletin, please click here.
Here are the briefing materials PDA produced:
Defense Strategy Review: Does Obama Run Hot or Cold on Defense? When analyzing the budget request in 2013 dollars, Carl Conetta finds that the administration’s spending request is still far above the Cold War average of $443 billion per year. (2/13/12)
The Project on Defense Alternatives: Panetta Releases DoD "Austerity" Budget; Pentagon Retains Most of Post-1998 Increase. Carl Conetta examines the administration’s FY13 budget request in historical terms and finds that DoD spending, both under current law as well as under sequestration, would still be higher than the inflation-adjusted average for the Cold War years. (1/26/12)
Recent Press Citations
San Francisco Chronicle: Defense Cuts Are a Drop in the Bucket. The Chronicle’s Carolyn Lochhead surveys BPWG members Winslow Wheeler, Christopher Preble, and Carl Conetta for their thoughts on the recently released defense budget. (2/13/12)
Wall Street Journal: White House Proposes Cap on Wartime Spending. The White House has proposed a $450 billion cap on war fundingover the next ten years, and will use a portion of the savings to fund infrastructure investments domestically. However, should OCO funding spike in future years, it is unlikely that the lost savings would come out of the DoD base budget. (2/13/12)
National Defense: 2013 Defense Budget Rollout: Just the Opening Salvo. Sandra Erwin finds that the Pentagon’s budget request keeps military spending at historically high levels despite persistently high budget deficits, with Charles Knight commenting that the budget “does not signal a new era of ‘restrained military posture for the United States.’” (2/13/12)
Wall Street Journal: Military Faces Historic Shift. The Wall Street Journal covers reaction to the strategic review, with Charles Knight pointing out that the “first strategic priority of the United States is getting its economic house in order. Doing this means spending less on the military in coming years.” (1/6/12)
Congressional Quarterly: Defense Lobbyists, Contractors Begin to Speculate Where Cuts Will Hit. Frank Oliveri surveys defense analysts’ predictions on how the defense budget will be trimmed, with Charles Knight forecasting “I don’t think we’re at the end of this.” (1/6/12)
BBC: Pentagon Cuts: What Will the New US Military Look Like? Heather Hurlburt discusses potential policy changes that may emanate from the Pentagon’s strategy review, including decreased Army troop levels, while Charles Knight points out that a smaller Army would increase pressure on the National Guard and Reserves should a large scale counter-insurgency or ground war occur. (1/5/12)
Boston Globe: Pentagon Should Do More Cutting, Less Complaining About Budget. Citing PDA’s figure that the Pentagon has spent $32 billion on cancelled weapons systems, the Boston Globe editorial board urges DoD to be smarter about procurement decisions. (1/2/12)
Key Activities
PDA prepared a draft "bottom up" Reasonable Defense posture plan which Carl Conetta presented at Congresswoman Barbara Lee's request to the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Policy Summit meeting in Baltimore on January 19th. PDA is currently completing a full version of this post-Iraq/Afghanistan wars posture plan which will help progressives to have a strong and articulate position on national security looking forward. It also provides guidance to the nation on how to make deeper cuts in the military budget without the disruption built into the 'sequester' provisions of the Budget Control Act.
PDA worked with Progressive Congress and the CPC to organize a strategy and budget briefing for more than a dozen congressional offices.
PDA consulted with the office of Rep. Edward Markey on details of savings estimates for reducing the future number of strategic missile submarines as part of a comprehensive strategic nuclear force reduction legislation the congressman is introducing. Since 2010 when the Sustainable Defense Task Force proposed reducing the deployed strategic warhead force from 1550 in the New START treaty to 1000, we are gratified to have witnessed this issue open up with new attention to significant cuts.
New Resource Pages from PDA
· The Pentagon Budget and Jobs: How Does Defense Spending Rate for Job Creation?
· A Short Tour of Pentagon Financial Mismanagement, Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
PDA Reset Defense Bulletin
The Project on Defense Alternatives publishes a semi-weekly newsletter, which provides readers with the latest developments and news items pertaining to the reformulation of U.S. defense policy and budgeting. To subscribe to the PDA Reset Defense Bulletin, please click here.
