military spending

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Sanders: Our Contractors Guilty of War Profiteering

Vermont senator slams excess defense spending, suggests revival of Truman Committee

(Newser) - Bernie Sanders has long been a strong advocate for health care for all and affordable child care and housing, among other progressive platforms. But "America's national priorities are badly misplaced," the independent Vermont senator writes in an op-ed for the Atlantic , with too much money in Sanders'...

Russian Funding for War to Skyrocket

Military budget to grow nearly 70%

(Newser) - Acknowledging that it will hurt, Russia announced on Thursday plans to increase military spending next year by as much as 70% in an effort to win its war against Ukraine. That would surpass the amount Russia spends on social programs. In fact, at 6% of GDP, military spending would add...

Watchdog: No One Held Accountable for $550M Pentagon Mess

New SIGAR report focuses on 20 G222 cargo planes that ended up as scrap metal

(Newser) - Back in 2014, a "lessons learned" memo from a government watchdog emerged over hundreds of millions of dollars wasted by the US Air Force on a fleet of faulty Italian-made military planes that ended up getting scrapped . Now, more than six years later, that same watchdog says no one...

US Navy: Let's Cut $94B From Our Fleet Budget

The proposal would shrink the fleet from 293 to 287 ships

(Newser) - The Navy is proposing construction cutbacks and accelerated ship retirements that would delay, or sink, the Navy's goal of a larger fleet—and potentially hurt shipyards, according to an initial proposal. The proposal would shrink the size of the fleet from today’s level of 293 ships to 287...

10 Biggest Spenders on War
10 Biggest Spenders on War 
May 7, 2017 12:04 PM CDT

10 Biggest Spenders on War

One country clearly leads the pack

(Newser) - Democrats and Republicans might squabble regularly about how much the US spends on its military, but one thing is not in doubt: Uncle Sam spends the most of any country in the world, accounts for more than a third of the entire planet's defense spending, and outpaces the next...

Trump Slams Clinton's 'Disqualifying Conduct'
Trump Slams Clinton's
'Disqualifying Conduct'
THE RUNDOWN
Sep 7, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Trump Slams Clinton's 'Disqualifying Conduct'

He plans major boost in military spending

(Newser) - Hillary Clinton's email scandal is "worse than Watergate," according to Donald Trump. At a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday night, he hit his rival hard over the contents of FBI documents released last week , saying "her conduct is disqualifying," the Guardian reports. He accused...

The US Totally Blew $3M on Boats for Afghanistan

Afghanistan is landlocked, the boats were abnormally expensive, and more

(Newser) - The US has wasted money in many ways in the Afghan war, but the Washington Post highlights a particularly egregious one revealed by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction yesterday: The US spent $3 million in 2010 to buy the Afghan police eight patrol boats. That works out to...

Pentagon's Plan: Cut Army to Pre-WWII Level

Hagel budget moves military off 'war footing'

(Newser) - The US Army may soon shrink to a level not seen since before it geared up to fight Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan simultaneously. In a spending proposal to be unveiled today, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel outlines plans to cut the Army to around 450,000 soldiers, its lowest level...

Military Will Never Use New $34M Afghanistan Base

Critics say it's the most glaring boondoggle in a war full of them: Washington Post

(Newser) - When a two-star general visited the new 64,000-square-foot US military headquarters building at Camp Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan, he was impressed. It's "better appointed than any Marine headquarters anywhere in the world," he tells the Washington Post , before adding, "What the hell were they thinking?"...

5 Cuts Pentagon Should Make Now
 5 Cuts Pentagon 
 Should Make Now 
OPINION
Feb 26, 2013 12:08 PM CST

5 Cuts Pentagon Should Make Now

Start with the F-35 mistake: Paul Barrett

(Newser) - To hear the Pentagon tell it, the looming sequester cuts will hurt military readiness and put the nation at genuine risk. "Flapdoodle," writes Paul Barrett at Businessweek . "The military is manufacturing a crisis to protect its wasteful, bloated, poorly designed budget." He suggests five cuts the...

Panetta: Curb Military Pay


 Panetta: Curb 
 Military Pay 
Feb 6, 2013 2:07 PM CST

Panetta: Curb Military Pay

Defense secretary also fears 'readiness crisis' ahead of sequestration

(Newser) - Leon Panetta is poised to recommend that military salaries increase just 1% in 2014, thanks to "budget uncertainties," insiders tell CNN . This year, military pay was increased 1.7%, and last year, President Obama took military pay cuts off the table—so Panetta's recommendation will be interpreted...

Pentagon Should Hire Google, Apple
 Pentagon 
 Should Hire 
 Google, Apple 
OPINION
Jul 24, 2012 12:22 PM CDT

Pentagon Should Hire Google, Apple

Arthur Herman says we need to look to WWII to modernize our military

(Newser) - The US spends billions on weapons, yet its fighters, helicopters, and ships date back to the '80s and '90s. Luckily, there's a precedent for the US overhauling its forces while cutting costs at the same time, writes Arthur Herman of the Wall Street Journal : World War II....

China Military Spending to Surge 11.2% in 2012

China now world's No. 2 military, but insists spending only moderate

(Newser) - China will up its defense spending by 11.2% in 2012 to $106.4 billion, citing its unhappiness with the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, reports the AP . China has made double-digit increases to its military spending in all but two of the years since the early 1990s,...

Obama Unveils 'Leaner,' 'Agile' Military

He wants to shift focus from ground troops to 'irregular warfare'

(Newser) - President Obama officially unveiled his plan for a slimmed-down military with a speech at the Pentagon today, promising that budget cuts and a reduction in conventional ground forces wouldn't harm the nation's security. "Our military will be leaner, but the world must know—the United States is...

Pentagon Readies Blueprint of Slim New Self

And with it, the Obama administration's defense priorities

(Newser) - The White House is poised to unveil its proposal to slim down the military to bring it in line with cuts agreed to in the recent debt ceiling deal, and in so doing give America a sense of Leon Panetta’s vision for the military’s future, the New York ...

Pentagon: We're Not Planning for Spending Cuts

Says it'll instead pressure Congress to change course

(Newser) - The Pentagon has no plans in place to deal with the $500 billion in spending cuts theoretically heading its way thanks to the supercommittee’s failure —and it refuses to make any now. “We are not planning for the” cuts, a Pentagon spokesman tells the New York Times...

Lawmakers Vow to Stop Defense Cuts if Panel Fails

Pessimism mounts that supercommittee will reach a deal

(Newser) - Your latest sign that the debt supercommittee isn't going to reach a deal: Lawmakers in both parties already are scrambling to ward off the $500 billion in across-the-board defense cuts that are supposed to be triggered by such a failure, reports the New York Times . Legislation is being drafted...

Costly News: US Military's Equipment Is 'Geriatric'

Average F-15 is 25 years old

(Newser) - Precious few Americans drive cars manufactured in 1964—the same isn't true of the US Air Force. The average age of an Air Force plane ranges from 25 years for an F-15 to 47 years for refueling aircraft, the Wall Street Journal reports in a look at a pricey...

Panetta: Debt Deal Trigger Puts America in Danger

$1T in Pentagon cuts 'completely unacceptable'

(Newser) - The Pentagon can't tighten its belt any further without putting America in danger, Leon Panetta warns. The defense secretary says major cuts beyond the $350 billion outlined in the debt ceiling deal are "completely unacceptable" and could do "real damage " to national security, the New York ...

World's 10 Largest Military Powers

US leads the way, by a lot, with China No. 2

(Newser) - In 2010, the countries of the world spent a combined $1.63 trillion on their militaries, according to 24/7 Wall Street . That includes money for weapons, soldiers, and maintaining infrastructure. The US led the way by far with just below $700 billion, more than the other top nine countries combined....

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