Budget/Appropriations

The Defense secretary pushed back Thursday on accusations that he is on a mission to slash military spending.

House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) on Thursday pressed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel over the Defense budget reducing spending by more than $100 billion over the next decade.

McKeon questioned why the reduction was being reduced further than the Pentagon’s planned $487 billion cuts last year when military leaders have said they can’t absorb further cuts.

“Two months ago, General Dempsey told this committee that the military could not absorb any further cuts without jeopardizing the missions that we ask of them,” McKeon said in his opening statement.

Nearly all of the Navy's shipbuilding priorities, from new aircraft carriers and submarines to the next-generation Littoral Combat Ship, all receiving funding increases in the Pentagon's new spending blueprint. 

The Pentagon’s 2014 budget hit the defense think-tank world with a big thud Wednesday.

Defense analysts were not impressed by the $526.6 billion 2014 Pentagon budget released Wednesday, which set spending $52 billion above the spending caps set by sequestration.

Their chief complaint was that the Pentagon is unlikely to actually get a 2014 budget near that funding level, unless there’s a drastic change to the budget gridlock that results in a deal to avert sequester.

Congressional Republicans wasted no time slamming President Obama's new defense spending plan, chastising the administration for leaving the Pentagon unprepared to deal with current and future national security threats. 

The Pentagon is slashing its investment in unmanned drones across the board, cutting just over $1 billion from those programs in the department's newest budget proposal. 

The proposals, designed to curb long-term defense costs, are politically unpopular and will have a tough time getting congressional approval.

President Obama’s 2014 budget will include roughly $550 million less in spending for missile defense programs than last year, Bloomberg News reported

The Pentagon’s 2014 budget will request $9.16 billion for missile defense programs, down from $9.71 billion in 2013.

The Obama administration budget will be released Wednesday.

The reported reduction is sure to anger Republicans who say that the president has not devoted attention and resources to missile defense.

The Pentagon is expected on Wednesday to recommend new base closures and hikes in military healthcare fees in President Obama’s budget.

These cost-saving policy suggestions were rejected by Congress in the 2013 budget, but are expected to be included in the new blueprint coming this week.

The House Armed Services Committee already held a hearing last month where lawmakers panned the notion of closing more bases, even before the Pentagon had officially offered them up.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faces an uphill battle in tackling the military’s budget problems.