analysis: 2012 Defense Budget & Deficit Reduction

The Project on Defense Alternatives has just posted its definitive assessment of the President's five-year budget as regards National Defense: "The Pentagon and Deficit Reduction: FY-2012 Budget Retains Exceptional Level of Defense Spending," which you can access here: http://www.comw.org/pda/1103bm47.html

Where is the US defense budget going over the next five years? How is the administration responding to various proposals for defense and other budget savings? This much we know: the base Pentagon budget is set to grow faster than inflation and, in the future, will claim a greater proportion of discretionary spending than today. Put simply: we are rebalancing the discretionary budget in favor of defense and retaining cold-war levels of expenditure despite debt and deficit concerns.

The memo features 10 tables and charts that put the recent plan into the context of today’s debt problem and weigh the budget in light of the past 12 years of military spending. The Executive Summary is very brief and provides a good overview. Hope you find it useful and interesting.

Project on Defense Alternatives, Cambridge MA & Washington DC.