You have the right to pursue happiness and not have it provided to you by a government check.
So much for that idea.
Just some basic numbers on the U.S. 2014 budget
$527B Base DOD budget
$88B (probably) War/contingency budget
$153B VA (Its own department but is the aftermath of security operations)
Total security related spending not counting state National Guard funding (two kinds of money) and DHS/Justice eliments: $768B
Other Agencies in the Fed:
Agriculture: $145B
Commerce: $11B
Education: $56B
Energy: $33B
EPA: $8B
Interior: $12B
Health and Human Services: $950B
DHS: $45B
Housing and Urban Development: $47B
Justice: $31B
Labor: $73B
NASA: $18B
State Dept: $47B
Transportation: $127B
Treasury: $500B
Analysis? Unsustainable spending funded in part by credit.
14pc unemployment (counting those no longer looking for work). A majority service economy as the result of off-shoring industry since Bush1 and Clinton.
Will domestic oil and gas save us?
Or, is Greece is on the horizon?
2 comments:
The good news is, at the very least, the White House agrees with you in term's of the F-35 and LCS acquisition, Eric.
I just found this now on page 47 of the President's 2014 Budget report to Congress:
"CUTTING WASTE WHEREVER WE FIND IT
Whether the Budget is in surplus or deficit,
wasting taxpayer dollars on programs that are
outdated, ineffective, or duplicative is wrong."
Wow, someone finally had to say it! Thank you White House!
All joking aside, here's where the near-term and medium-term financial and fiscal conundrum is going to unfortunately hit another bump in the road, most probably requiring another stepped Federal 'restructuring' probably by FY15 or FY16 at the latest.
FY14 is budgeting for a proposed $2.25T in mandatory spending. By FY20, total Mandatory spending is estimated (conservatively imho) to increase to $3.12T.
Even by those numbers alone, assuming they can remain within that box, it could be assessed that these Mandatory spending budget liabilities will simply not be sustainable to continue by the end of the decade.
With respect to Defense base budgets... The current expected 'jump' in FY15's base budget, over FY14, is considerable. An expected boost to $657B vs FY14's $615-620B.
By FY2020, the Defense base budget is expected and budgeted to hit $717B!
Sounds good enough, things aren't so bad really for DoD... Why all this pessimism over the current procurement process? Heck, stay the course with the Defense acquisition process! Why even need to change the process or fix something when we're going to see a lottery gold mine worth of funding indefinitely (above rate of inflation), right?
In reality however, look at the proposed track for non-defense discretionary.
It's much flatter. FY2020 is currently budgeted at a modest increase over FY14's non-Defense discretionary. Therein is the politically doomed reality check come FY20 when politicians will say, 'what'? Why the imbalance? We need to balance this imbalance! Um, hello...
Either way, Come FY20, the total Federal budget will most likely still need to be 'adjusted' downward. That's the hard cold reality. This will include further cuts to Mandatory spending, which will most definitely force massive political pressure on offsetting cuts elsewhere in kind. To include, yes, Defense base budget. Sad to say.
My gut feeling? Contingency plan for an FY15 Defense base budget of $610B and for an FY16 base budget of $600-615B compared to the expected $666B.
Unfortunately, those will force considerable restructurings, once they hit most 'unexpectedly'.
God speed, leadership.
F-35A still cost 188 mil in fy 2014. No idea how LM wanne bring that to its latest 85 mil claim.
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