[click image]U.S. defense spending in coming years must rise roughly 6 percent on average from the record sum sought by President Barack Obama this year just to meet current plans, Congress's budget office said Wednesday.Another gross miscalculation by the vaunted change-artist Obama team....
An average of $567 billion would be needed annually, in constant 2010 dollars, from 2011 to 2028, not including any war funding, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated.
This is about 6 percent more than the bumper $534 billion requested in the base fiscal 2010 Defense Department budget, Matthew Goldberg, CBO's acting assistant director, told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
"CBO projects that carrying out the plans proposed in the president's 2010 budget request ... would require defense resources averaging $567 billion annually" from 2011 to 2028 in constant terms, the analysis said.
The need for more funds to stay on the current path could squeeze top Pentagon suppliers such as Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp, General Dynamics Corp, BAE Systems Plc and Raytheon Co.
Other factors could boost defense spending above CBO's projection, posing even tougher choices for decision-makers grappling with trade-offs in future defense budgets.
Obama administration officials have said they were initially assuming the base defense budget, excluding war-related funding, would be essentially flat for the next five years. In other words, they have been shooting for growth only enough to cover inflation, or zero real growth.
I'm shocked.
Round up the usual suspects.
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