WASHINGTON: One Adam Smith was a master of rational behavior in the economic world, the man who taught how making pins really mattered. Capitol Hill boasts another Adam Smith, perhaps not as august a personage, but one who appears to approach defense issues with an emphasis on fact and rational decision making, and more than… Keep reading →

With the Supercommittee’s wreckage still smoldering in Congress, the prospect of an additional half trillion dollars in cuts to our national defense budget isn’t hypothetical anymore. For an overstretched military needing to reset after a decade of war and the 13 million Americans already looking for work, it’s a disaster. But amazingly, even as expert… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: A day after Senate Republicans announced their own plan to cut $1.2 trillion from the national deficit, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon unveiled a plan of his own. The “Down Payment To Protect National Security Act” calls for a ten percent total cut to the federal workforce spread over 10 years,… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: President Obama’s defense budget for 2013 implements the start of the $500 billion in budget cuts required by the Budget Control Act but does not address the additional $600 billion in cuts triggered by the Super Committee’s failure. The most important implication deduced from the chart above would be that the administration has begun… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: As the election campaign heats up, so does the debate over guns and butter. Defense Secretary Panetta and his crew, joined by the GOP, say we must fund the Pentagon. Our security is at stake in a highly uncertain world. Jobs — good paying, high-tech jobs — are at risk, they say. Some Democrats… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress’ failure to enact Super Committee cuts is likely to lead to serious reductions in funding for Pentagon weapon systems, according to one of the most respected defense budget analysts. Todd Harrison, the budget analyst at the respected Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told a group of reporters eager to go home for… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: “I will be introducing legislation in the coming days to prevent cuts that will do catastrophic damage to our men and women in uniform and our national security. Our military has already contributed nearly half a trillion to deficit reduction. Those who have given us so much, have nothing more to give.” With… Keep reading →

This commentary was penned late last week, when it looked likely the Super Committee would fail in its appointed task of cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. Well, it has failed. All signs are that Congress has taken the easy way out and will let this stew until after the election. Theoretically, the Defense… Keep reading →

Pentagon: It’s official: the Pentagon will get roughly halfway to the Obama administration’s goal of cutting up to $500 billion in defense spending over the next five years. Department officials will finalize details of the $260 billion in cuts “in the coming weeks,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today. Those will be part of the… Keep reading →

National Defense University: We’re going to do downsizing right: That’s the essence of the pledge made today by the Pentagon’s Under Secretary for Policy, Michèle Flournoy. It won’t be an easy one to keep. Flournoy talked to reporters here after she spoke to an NDU conference on “grand strategy. While the military’s top civilian strategist… Keep reading →