Pentagon budget set to shrink next year

[think]

2. "Defense Dollars Would Increase Under Obama Budget"

Defense Dollars Would Increase Under Obama Budget
By MERRILL GOOZNER, The Fiscal Times
January 27, 2012

Offering a military budget designed to head off charges that he’s weak on defense, President Obama on Thursday unveiled a Pentagon spending plan that fails to cut any major procurement programs and calls for spending $36 billion more on the military in 2017 than it will spend this year.

Though billed as a cumulative cut of $259 billion over the next five years, that reduction is based on previous budget proposals that presumed the military spending would continue to grow as fast as it has over the past decade, when spending more than doubled. Total military spending, including $115 billion for the war in Afghanistan and recently-ended conflict in Iraq, totaled $646 billion this year, up from $310 billion in 2001....

Full article:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/01/27/Defense-Dollars-Would-Increase-Under-Obama-Budget.aspx#page1