Today is DOD day

Maybe I shouldn't have gone to the Sensible Priorities web site because I have another DOD post. Their latest publication is by Lawrence Korb and it's about the defense budget. I'd never read anything by Korb prior to my recent post. I knew he was part of Reagan's Cabinet; he was Assistant Secretary of Defense. So, I thought he'd be an ultra-conservative. I was wrong; he's a fiscal conservative who makes a sound argument for cutting the defense budget.

Korb claims that we could cut DOD's budget by $60 billion a year and still be very well protected. He uses data and conclusions from analyses done by CBO, GAO and the Unified Security Budget Task Force. As you know, I'm not a military man, but his arguments make sense to me.

He reviews six areas where significant cuts can be made:

• Nuclear Forces - we have 6000 operational nuclear weapons, far more than we need as a deterrent. Cutting back to 1000 would save $14 billion.
• Ballistic Missile Defense - it has yet to be shown to work. Cutting it back to basic research would save $8 billion.
• New Weapons - most of them are designed for the Cold War (which ended in 1990) and are of no use in today's wars. All have seen escalating costs on the order of two to three times original estimates. Possible savings: $28 billion.
• Space-based Offensive Weapons - have no advantage. Possible savings: $5 billion.
• R&D and Test and Evaluation - this is largely being spent on new weapons which are irrelevant today. Another $5 billion saved if cut back.
• Poor Management - running things right would save at least $5 billion a year.