Gates to Cut Major Military Command in Virginia, Officials Say

[Geee]

Fox News:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to announce his intention to shed one of 10 major military commands as part of his effort to strip billions from the Pentagon budget, Fox News confirms.

The plan to eliminate Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., is sure to draw heavy criticism from Virginia lawmakers who opposed the idea weeks before Gates decided to make it official.

Gates is also expected to detail other efforts to reduce waste and duplication at an afternoon press conference, including a plan to cut the Pentagon's use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year.

The Virginia-based command trains troops from different services to fight together. Joint Forces Command, with nearly 4,900 employees and annual salaries of more than $200 million, is the largest single cut to be announced Monday.

Gates is not expected to say how much money will be saved by shutting down the command, which holds more than 1 million square feet of real estate in Suffolk, Va., and Norfolk, Va.

Savings will be offset by the cost of shifting some jobs and roles elsewhere. The Pentagon has already announced a target of cutting $100 billion over five years. And earlier this year Gates ordered a top-to-bottom paring of the military bureaucracy in search of at least $10 billion in annual savings needed to prevent an erosion of U.S. combat power.

Gates took aim at what he called wasteful business practices and too many generals and admirals, and noted that "overhead" costs chew up as much as 40 percent of the Pentagon's budget.

Big cuts are essential considering the recession and the likelihood that Congress no longer will give the Pentagon the sizable budget increases it has enjoyed since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Gates and other defense leaders have said.

"The gusher has been turned off and will stay off for a good period of time," Gates said in May.
The current defense budget, not counting the cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, is $535 billion; the administration is asking for $549 billion for 2011.

[Argyle58]

So, we can spend hundreds of billions to assist people from paying their bills, but we have to cut DEFENSE and BORDER SECURITY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

 

Priorities are genuinly screwed in DC

[Casino67]

So, we can spend hundreds of billions to assist people from paying their bills, but we have to cut DEFENSE and BORDER SECURITY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

 

Priorities are genuinly screwed in DC

 

I am wondering if Gates did this to piss off the pols. State legislators are already complaining. Can't be good for the Dims.