Pentagon Plans to Reduce Size of Army to pre-WWII Levels.

There are dirtbag Republicans as well. We all know they have their pockets being lines with cash from certain contributors. This is the difference between me and a ton of the leftists here, they will never admit their "side" can be as corrupt as the other.

@vfibsux: you don't seem to have a good handle on our friends on the left here

We're heading into a new era... with robots.

The military budget is kind of bloated, and we don't need that number of troops. However, just cutting them would be detrimental as well towards the current troops. If you wish to reduce the troop size, this should be a long-term goal of reducing new recruits so when the current troops begin to become discharged from service, the overall troop size can slowly be brought down. But besides personnel issues, probably should try and tackle certain private contracts.

@Master_Live:

What do you want to see cut that comes anywhere close to the amount being spent on the DOD?

Hahahahaha. Yeah I'm sure that'll happen.

what lessons are those? when has the US been legitimately at risk due to lack of funding to the military over the last 60 years? i completely agree w/ you on the shady spending and corruption, I just see that the military is part of it as well.

If people didn't already know, the US military is transforming itself into leaner and more agile beast. The end goal is to allow the United States to deploy anywhere at anytime to deter anything with little long term involvement. At the end of the day, there's simply no need to have a bloated military force when you assess the threats that are posed against the United States and it's allies.

I feel sorry for the people that will lose their jobs.

Rofl at retarded Military Keynesians. It's hilarious how some idiots can harp on and on about government waste (often by focusing on tiny million dollar programs because these people generally cannot do maths).

But when you start talking about cutting dozens/hundreds of billions of dollars out of the one sector of government that is probably the most overfunded and least socially beneficial with one of the lowest fiscal multipliers and employment-spending ratios, people start ironically crying about the poor little soldiers and arms industries.

Want to keep all the benefits but want none of the compromises... that's why the government is in a debt abyss.

Defense contractors should have taken a harsher hit. All branches keep saying they don't need x or y 3 billion dollar new toy but the Senate just approves it anyways. Meanwhile, troops are taking hits through BAH or commissary cuts.

Cuts to the defense budget wouldn't be too bad as long as they were controlled in a way where it would benefit overall defense as well as troops in uniform. Cut a few troublemakers here and kill a useless project here and everybody could be happy.

The problem is nine times out of ten leaders are told they are losing X amount of dollars and the people in charge of the budget find out they can choose between cutting X amount of projects they want to keep and cutting X amount of troops.

In an effort to save the projects they want, they choose option B and give thousands of troops pink slips while making the remaining troops work harder. Pay alone is what takes up billions of dollars in the budget and cutting 10,000 troops can save that project they love.

While that may work in the short term, it comes back to bite the military in the ass if a major conflict breaks out and they need to increase numbers. We already saw in the mid-2000s when the military had to choose between allowing certain felons and people with low test scores in while offering bigger bonuses or asking Congress to reinstate the draft for Iraq and Afghanistan.

What is the fiscal multiplier of the defense industry? Just curious.

I'm not sure what Hagel's plan entails but I'd be more for a longer-term approach to downsizing the military than a one fell swoop strategy.

I really don't see the point in offloading a hundred thousand veterans into an already pathetic job market. And no, it's not any easier for veterans to get jobs than it is for other normal people.

It's very difficult to find estimates for any government program because the fiscal multiplier is also dependent on other economic factors such as unemployment, capacity utilization, marginal propensity to consume, .etc. IIRC it's about 0.8 under normal conditions (full or almost full employment) which is pretty small but quite logical.

seems military recruiters have been lying to kids then about developing skills employers will want.

It has less to do with not developing useful skills and more to do with employers afraid to hire veterans they think may go off the deep end from a flashback they had from Iraq. That, and enlistment only requires you to be eligible while job hunting requires you to be eligible and able to pass an interview. People who have never worked anywhere besides the military probably never sat through an interview or filled out a resume.

Besides, what skills you bring to the outside is more based on what you did while you are in. For example, people who were truck drivers in the military can get their military license transferred to a CDL in many states. On the other hand, enlist as infantry and unless you are taking college classes while in you're not going to get too many jobs outside of law enforcement or security until you have a degree to back you up.

I've just started laughing at the practice at this point.

Give me the estimate on the cuts from this reduction.

Yup.

How does Hagel plan on shrinking the military down to 450,000 though, would this be a gradual thing where positions vacate as people retire or would military members get laid off?

Also less jobs for military members may also mean less jobs for civilian contractors. For example Sikorsky (which makes helicopters) has announced they are laying off 600 employees (though they would give those employees some financial assistance and help finding new jobs), much of those layoffs would probably be in CT.

About freaking time, now if we could only get Medicare and Social Security cut to pre-Great Depression levels this country might have a chance.

^^^^^^^^ I'm down with CPI, health savings accounts, opting out of Social Security and more.

The American people see the cost of imperialism is to great. However the ruling class will fight this tooth and nail because they are the ones who really benefit from it.