2012 defense bill makes miniscule cuts

The House has released the 2012 defense spending bill and it includes a little bit of belt tightening. But just barely, and not enough to please Democrats who say there should be significant cuts at the Pentagon to counter proposals to slash domestic spending.

The bill would provide $539 billion in total defense allocations for the 2012 fiscal year. That’s just a hair below the president’s FY 2012 request. Republicans lopped off $8.9 billion in spending, but even with those cuts, the total comes in $17 billion above this year’s spending levels.