[Peace-discuss] Gates Can't Build Every Weapon System in Sight and Still Meet the Rising Defense Budget: Where is the Paradox?

[David Green]

The NYT had a peculiar front page article in which it portrayed Defense 
Secretary Robert Gates as a budget cutter even though he wants to increase the 
defense budget by 1.0 percent a year in excess of inflation. It notes that he 
doesn't want the government to buy some of the weapons system being pushed by 
Congress. It then comments:
"In one of the paradoxes of Washington budget battles, Mr. Gates, even as he 
tries to forestall deeper cuts, is trying to kill weapons programs he says the 
military does not need over the objections of members of Congress who want to 
protect jobs."
It is not clear what the article views as paradoxical. Increasing the defense 
budget by 1.0 percent a year in excess of inflation does not imply an austere 
budget. Nonetheless it also doesn't imply an infinite budget. There is nothing 
paradoxical about the defense secretary having to set priorities in this 
context.
 
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/gates-cant-build-every-weapon-system-in-sight-and-still-meet-the-rising-defense-budget-where-is-the-paradox



      
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