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Ever hear of it?

The Sustainable Defense Task Force was formed in response to a request from Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), working in cooperation with Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC), Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), to explore possible defense budget contributions to deficit reduction efforts that would not compromise the essential security of the United States. The Project on Defense Alternatives coordinated the work of the Task Force. Carl Conetta drafted the main body of the Task Force report in ongoing consultation with Task Force members who developed or digested proposals from the diverse sources cited in the report. A sub-committee of the Task Force reviewed the final draft before publication. It should not be assumed that all Task Force members endorse all items and sections of the report.


Sustainable Defense Task Force

I found this task force from reading the following article written in May of this year.We thought that was the end of it. But within a year, a group called the Sustainable Defense Task Force upped the ante and demanded $1 trillion in cuts. As I said then: "We're more likely talking cuts of somewhere between $100 billion and $1 trillion over the next decade. This is not good news for investors in defense companies. Revenues will drop, valuations will fall, and industry consolidation is likely ..."

Little did I realize that was the best-case scenario. Yesterday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) -- an early backer of SDTF -- began sharpening his cleaver, and suggested that $100 billion a year may not be quite enough after all. Frank believes the United States could actually "afford to cut $200 billion a year." Thus, he appears to be targeting a nice round half-trillion-dollar target for annual defense spending -- about a 29% reduction from the current bar bill.


Will Congress Gut National Defense? (BA, GD, GE, LMT, NOC, RTN, SAI)

Pass me the cleaver. I could bring the bill down by 85% and not prejudice the security of the US Homeland.

spot;1365821 wrote: Pass me the cleaver. I could bring the bill down by 85% and not prejudice the security of the US Homeland.I'm sure most of us could, including Frank, but we're not politicians who must remain in office to ensure the cutting at least continues at, albeit, a snails pace.

Cutting defense budget...hmmm...how about ENDING OUR THREE USELESS MONEY-SAPPING WARS?!!!!!!

Saint_;1365837 wrote: Cutting defense budget...hmmm...how about ENDING OUR THREE USELESS MONEY-SAPPING WARS?!!!!!!


It would be interesting to hear your view of what the function of the US armed forces ought to be if it doesn't involve not fighting those three useless money-sapping wars. Should it have involved starting them in the first place, for example? Should those three useless money-sapping wars never have happened? If they're not out fighting foreign nationalist resistance partisans on their home ground in asymmetric warfare, what function do they fulfil?