FCNL

Don't Let the Pentagon Off the Hook

Faced with pressure to cut the deficit, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta acknowledged this week that the Pentagon budget cannot continue to grow at the lighting fast speed of the last decade. At a press briefing today, the Pentagon leader said he plans to slow the rate of growth of the Pentagon budget by nearly $500 billion in the next 10 years.

This plan backtracks on what Congress has already agreed to cut in Pentagon spending through the debt reduction plan triggered last fall. That debt reduction plan would require cutting back nearly $1 trillion from planned spending over 10 years. Even with $1 trillion in cuts, in 10 years, the Pentagon budget will still be larger than it is today. See this chart for more details.

What Pentagon leaders are now doing is proposing to cut the growth in their budget by $500 billion and asking Congress to waive the law that would require a $1 trillion cut in military spending.

Help us get the message out: Cut $1 trillion from the Pentagon over the next decade. Write a letter to your local paper. The headlines in your local papers will be that the Pentagon is cutting its budget - not that it is modestly slowing the rate of growth. At a time when many other federal government agencies and most state and local governments are already dealing with dramatic reductions in what they can spend this year and over the next 10 years, the Pentagon still wants to hold on to its original plans to keep spending even more.

You can help make the case for a more rationale approach to federal spending. Please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, referring to the coverage of the Pentagon's budget announcement or other budget news, and mentioning your members of Congress by name. Express your support for cuts to the Pentagon budget of at least $1 trillion over the next 10 years. If it's published, your letter will be seen by many people in your community, including your members of Congress.

Thank you,