Pentagon Begins Preparing for Fiscal Cliff Cuts

If ever there were an argument for Washington gridlock

The Pentagon said Wednesday it is now preparing for billions of dollars in budget cuts should President Obama and congressional Republicans fail to reach an alternative plan by Jan. 1.

The move breaks from earlier statements that no plans were being made – a signal that difficulties reaching a deal are beyond the public stalemate or so-called "political theater" and that Washington officials are bracing for the worst.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the Office of Management and Budget instructed the department to begin preparing for the roughly $500 billion cuts over the next 10 years – a situation resulting from both sides failing earlier to reach a more measured approach to cutting  the country's roughly $16 trillion deficit.

Comments

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Defense spending needs to be cut. If we lower their budget, then a great deal of waste and fraud will (hopefully) be eliminated in defense contracts.

And before you go all crazy on me, I'll give you an example of the kind of waste and fraud I'm speaking of. Did you know that nearly every defense contract involving manufacturing of goods includes a clause that mandates that the federal government purchase all defective merchandise at full retail value, regardless of the number of defective units or the severity of the defects? It is my understanding that there have been several incidents in the past where companies have pushed through literally NOTHING but sub-par, defective units, and been paid full contract price for them.

It's pretty ridiculous how much the defense budget has become as corrupt and full of cronyism as any other federal institution.

[Tablet pc]

I like cuts.haha