The Final Gates Defense-Budget Showdown Begins -- The Danger Room
What, you thought Roberts Gates was out the door as Pentagon chief? Before the defense secretary retires, it’s looking like he’s got one more fight over the defense budget left in him.
Gates’ likely last hurrah is his “efficiencies initiative,” an effort to wring $100 billion in budgetary fat out of the Pentagon so he can re-invest it in the guns, planes, and ships that he thinks are vital. Unless the fat’s cut, he’s argued, the pressures of the budget deficit could compel deeper cuts, jeopardizing national security. Even advocates of growing the defense budget are cool with axing wasteful programs — except it’s not been totally clear what Gates thinks is fat and what’s muscle, and therein lies the controversy.
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