Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave one of the most sweeping speeches of the Post-Cold War era on American national security. Building off themes established in the 2008 National Defense Strategy written under President Bush, Secretary Gates presented what he described as “a budget crafted to reshape the priorities …
Major 2010 defense budget cuts expected to be announced by Secretary Gates today are part of a broader theme laid out in last year’s National Defense Strategy and his Foreign Affairs article seeking more “balance” in the military’s equipment portfolio away from high-end systems to fight conventional wars and more …
Last week President Obama took another opportunity to discuss his budget plans with the American people. As part of selling his $3.2 billion dollar budget, he has set his sights on defense acquisition reform and the time-honored tradition of promising greater cost savings by rooting out the fraud, waste, and …
In his February 24, Address to Joint Session of Congress, President Barack Obama promised to “reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use.” In the DC Examiner, Heritage senior fellow James Carafano wonders that means: All the “Cold War” weapons still …
A core principle of the political left in this country is that our current levels of defense spending have harmed, and will continue to harm, our economic prosperity. So last month while he was defending the $700 billion Wall Street bailout program, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said: “The biggest ongoing …
During yesterday’s press conference on government contracting reform, President Obama took aim at the defense industry, declaring that “We are spending money on things that we don’t need, and we are paying more than we need to pay, and that’s completely unacceptable.” Fair enough. We more than agree that it …
Yesterday, President Obama declared that in addition to solving all of the country’s other ills that he was going to eliminate government waste. His target—defense spending. “I want to focus on one particular example, and that is the situation in defense contracting.” This was a speech I long expected. Our …
This morning, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum that aims to reform government contracting and, he claims, an effort that could potentially save taxpayers up to $40 billion. President Obama is right to ensure that “the American people’s money is spent to advance their priorities, not to line the pockets …
We just finished watching President Barack Obama’s press conference on his plan to save taxpayers $40 billion a year by reforming government contracting. And with apologies to the Wendy’s franchise, “Where’s the beef?” There was zero substance in that speech. Not one specific idea for exactly how he will achieve …
