Board 8 > Huh. Obama's cutting the defense budget. $450 billion/10 years + maybe much more

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/us/obama-at-pentagon-to-outline-cuts-and-strategic-shifts.html?_r=1

for tl;dr:
The new military strategy is driven by at least $450 billion in Pentagon budget cuts over the next decade. An additional $500 billion in cuts could be ordered if Congress follows through on plans for deeper reductions.



In an unusual appearance in the Pentagon briefing room, Mr. Obama put his mark on a military strategy that moves away from the grinding wars he inherited from the Bush administration and relies more on naval and air power in the Pacific and the Strait of Hormuz as a counterbalance to China and Iran.

“We’re turning the page on a decade of war,” Mr. Obama said. He called it “a moment of transition” that allowed him to look ahead and determine the kind of force – a smaller one, he said -- that the nation needs in the future.

Mr. Obama’s strategy embraces hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to the military, making it an awkward codicil to the uneasy relationship he has shared with the military since his first days in office.

In a letter accompanying the new strategy, the president wrote, “We must put our fiscal house in order here at home and renew our long-term economic strength.”

But in an election year when he has been under assault from Republican presidential candidates for cutting the military budget and for what they say is his weak response to Iranian threats, Mr. Obama also said that the United States would “avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when our military was left ill-prepared for the future.”

To that end, the president wrote, his administration will continue to invest in counterterrorism, intelligence gathering, cyberwarfare and countering the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Mr. Obama arrived at the Pentagon early Thursday to describe the new strategy with his defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, and with Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Officials said it was the first time in history that a president had held a news conference at the Pentagon.



pretty interesting shift there. a nice trump card to use too for the election year.

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The King Wang.
Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.

He's just going to put that 450 billion into pushing his communist agenda, so I don't get why this is a good thing.

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http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcb35gGx0t1qailr4o1_500.gif
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=57N0YAEJ

No, he'll put the 450 billion into pushing SOPA.

That'll do a better job convincing everyone he's evil.

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xfd dude, it's just a popularity contest on the internets.
-Vlado

one of the best things he has done as president, honestly. we need to massively cut our bloated defense budget if we are ever going to control our debt or free up spending for areas that are actually beneficial. the amount we spend on defense relative to the rest of the world is completely absurd. we can't both be the massive world police and a tiny fiscally responsible republic, republicans.

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I'm "kind of a big deal".
http://img.imgcake.com/cyclo/Cyclopngegpngre.png

Won't cover a tenth of the deficit, but it's a good start. I'm willing to go back to Clinton taxes if he goes back to Clinton entitlement spending (as a percentage of GDP).

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PSN: JDTAY87

490,000 soldiers cut and the factories that will be shut down - should be interesting.

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where is mankriks wife

Hopefully many of the cuts will be from foreign stations; we need the troops to be putting money into our economy.

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My Japanese alter-ego.
Hey all this is Bartz btw.

Could have been a step in the right direction if not for asking for another 1.5 trillion in more bailouts.
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