CNN: Panetta to announce $500 billion in defense cuts later today

[think]

9. “the growth in the defense budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this: It will still grow.

those are Obama's own words on these cuts:

...Actually, describing it as a cut is a misnomer. The plan actually calls for an increase in the national security budget over the next decade — but it would scale back the 18 percent boost previously set for that period.

As Obama made clear in a brief speech while standing with Panetta on January 5, “the growth in the defense budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this: It will still grow.”

Here’s the backdrop: Between 2000 and 2009, the average annual growth in national security budget authority was around 6 percent. That made spending go up by around two-thirds, to nearly $720 billion. Today, national security accounts for more than half of so-called “discretionary” spending — the portion decided annually by Congress....


Read more: http://njtoday.net/2012/01/26/puncturing-the-hot-air-balloons-on-defense-spending/#ixzz1kafU3IL6

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