President Obama’s proposed defense budget is well below what former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates proposed.
“The debate over defense spending is now focused on two figures: the $534 billion that President Obama has requested for the Defense Department in fiscal year (FY) 2016, and the $498 billion cap that the Pentagon faces under a law known as the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). A third number should be even more important, however: the $611 billion that former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates estimated the Defense Department will actually need in the coming fiscal year,” Christopher Griffin of the Foreign Policy Initiative details.
The reason that this last figure is so important is that a meaningful baseline for defense spending must reflect an assessment of the threats facing the United States and the capabilities needed in response to them. Secretary Gates’ FY 2012 budget proposal was the last budget that reflected such an assessment, and it included the $611 billion estimate for defense spending in FY 2016.
Recognizing this fact, the bipartisan, congressionally-mandated National Defense Panel has recommended that the President and Congress should “return as soon as possible to at least the funding baseline proposed in the Gates’ FY 2012 defense budget.” The Panel concluded that the Gates budget represents “the minimum required to reverse course and set the military on a more stable footing.”
The key question in the defense debate therefore should not be how much more funding the President has proposed compared to the “meat ax” contained in the Budget Control Act, but how little funding the President has requested compared to Secretary Gates’ recommendation before the BCA was signed into law – a $76 billion shortfall.
Recognizing this fact, the bipartisan, congressionally-mandated National Defense Panel has recommended that the President and Congress should “return as soon as possible to at least the funding baseline proposed in the Gates’ FY 2012 defense budget.” The Panel concluded that the Gates budget represents “the minimum required to reverse course and set the military on a more stable footing.”
The key question in the defense debate therefore should not be how much more funding the President has proposed compared to the “meat ax” contained in the Budget Control Act, but how little funding the President has requested compared to Secretary Gates’ recommendation before the BCA was signed into law – a $76 billion shortfall.
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