Obama Plans 8% Increase InDefense Budget? -- Hot Air
According to Congressional Quarterly, Fox News got its story wrong on Obama’s planned defense spending. This weekend, Fox reported an Obama mandate of ten percent reductions across the board. CQ reports that Obama has given Defense Secretary Robert Gates an upper limit of $527 billion for non-war spending in FY2010 — which would be an 8% increase in defense spending:
The Obama administration has given the Pentagon a $527 billion limit, excluding war costs, for its fiscal 2010 defense budget, an Office of Management and Budget official said Monday.
If enacted, that would be an 8 percent increase from the $487.7 billion allocated for fiscal 2009 (PL 110-329), and it would match what the Bush administration estimated last year for the Pentagon in fiscal 2010. But it sets up a potential conflict between the new administration and the Defense Department’s entrenched bureaucracy, which has remained largely intact through the presidential transition.
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More News On The U.S. Defense Budget
Pentagon, White House still negotiating 2010 budget -- Reuters
More Instability, Less DoD Money Worries Mullen -- DoD Buzz
Pentagon Budget Faces Uncertain Future -- Center For Arms Control
OMB Draws Line on Defense Budget -- Yahoo News/CQ Politics
Mullen: Economic Crisis Squeezes Defense Spending -- Defense News
Obama to maintain defense spending limit -- The Hill
Obama's defense budget mystery -- Washington Times opinion
National Defense Is Still Job One -- IBDB
The Military Still Needs More -- Commentary
Obama's 10% Defense Budget Cut: A Step in the Right Direction -- Huffington Post