re: Pentagon plants to shrink army to pre WW2 level

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Most of our military spending is on retirement and military health care.

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I believe those programs combined comprise about 1/5th of the DOD budget. Check the chart in the post directly above yours.

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I believe those programs combined comprise about 1/5th of the DOD budget. Check the chart in the post directly above yours.

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I'm not sure that meme counts retirement and health care for vets. It says just military pay and housing.

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U.S. government agencies face use-it-or-lose-it budget rules each fiscal year. They either spend the funds Congress has allocated or return them to the Treasury. Simply allowing agencies to roll over unused funding into the subsequent ?scal year would be a huge improvement with no impact on quality whatsoever.

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What does that mean? If agency A has x$ unspent and they roll it over does it get added to the next years appropriation as a bonus so they have the "necessary" z + X to spend or is Z reduced because they have the X residue? Does X still have to be spent for the same appropriated reason or can agency A spent X anyway it desires since the purpose no longer exists?

I don't think it is as easy as you suggest to solve by roll over.


IMHO the main problem is if you don't spend it all you have a hard time justifying next years budget, spending excess money could be more easily stopped if there was no punishment for not spending it all but some incentive. Presently their is a disincentive, you screw your agency in the next budget if you over estimated the prior years budget.

The real fix would be to not penalize frugal or efficient agencies that go under budget in the next years budget, they should be trusted for good behavior.

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The real fix would be to not penalize frugal or efficient agencies that go under budget in the next years budget, they should be trusted for good behavior.

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This is where bonuses for fiscal performance should be used.

I am a Veteran and i agree with this move. First there are thousands of people currently serving in our Military (i served with a bunch of them) that are deadbeats. They are only there for the paycheck. Trimming the fat doesnt necessarily make us weaker, in fact it could be the opposite. Weed out the underperforming soldiers who dont meet the military standards. Make us a more effective, efficient and mobile force. I can take you to Ft Hood and show you 60k soldiers, where 50k of them on any given day are basically doing nothing. This is nothing to do with being against the Military. Actually cutting some here and there might make us able to re-alocate money to other areas and make us stronger. Nobody is invading America people. Our military will still be the most elite force in the world!

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the main problem is if you don't spend it all you have a hard time justifying next years budget,

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Exactly. Don't spend all your budget, then next year's budget for your department is very possibly on the chopping block. My wife works for state education and that's exactly how they operate here in Ark.

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Weed out the underperforming soldiers who dont meet the military standards.

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I agrre, getting rid of females in the military would go a long way towards saving this country money and making our military more effective.

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U.S. government agencies face use-it-or-lose-it budget rules each fiscal year. They either spend the funds Congress has allocated or return them to the Treasury. Simply allowing agencies to roll over unused funding into the subsequent ?scal year would be a huge improvement with no impact on quality whatsoever.

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But that makes too much sense. Instead, with the current policy, you get to see C-17s doing touch and goes at the end of every month to burn off excess fuel, so they don't get cut later on in fuel supply.

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Sure they should, I get a military pension, my son is on AD, there is no reason military pay should not be as subject to cuts or at least freezes as anything else (benefits for dysfunctionals, other retirees, Congressional and other federal pay etc.

Military pay has increased too much since we eliminated the draft and engaged in decades of unnecessary wars. Too many dual pay families and double dippers also. The system should be over hauled.

OTOH, increased funding of benefits of illegals, and other such Democrat crap should not be allowed if we cut other areas.

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+1, and props to you for saying it as an actual retiree

i have been deeply ashamed to see many of my old officer buddies & acquaintances sniveling and snotting about that COLA thing. of course most of them are hardcore "small-government-otherwise" types

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Shouldn't we maintain a smaller, active duty army with more emphasis on Reserves and National Guard?

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Yes.