How Would You Cut the Defense Budget?

Yesterday President Obama outlined his plan for a "leaner military."

The Obama administration has said it plans to cut $487 billion from the defense budget over the next decade, but the president, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other officials didn't offer details of where reductions would be made other than to say they'd shrink the size of ground forces. The details, they said, would be outlined during next month's budget session.

As bloated as the defense budget is, cutting it significantly yet safely is trickier than it looks. And of course there's a widget for trying it yourself.

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money:

Grover Cleveland and Chris Preble point out the nifty DoD budget cost cutting tool at the NYT.

It’s not terribly hard to get to $450 billion, especially if you cut back on ground forces. I managed to get to $459 without cutting much from naval forces (1 carrier down), from benefits, or even from missile defense. I do kill the new stealth bomber and the bomber leg of the nuclear triad. That’s a pretty modest set of cuts; it’s also not terribly difficult to get to $1 trillion, but you have to start cutting back on benefits, and drop the USMC and USA by roughly 35%. I’m not convinced that some of the options would actually save money; replacing military personnel who perform commercial activities and cutting back on the civilian Pentagon work force, for example, would leave many DoD functions at the mercy of private contractors.

One thing to remember; cutting back on the defense budget, especially personnel costs, is anti-stimulus in the short term. Dropping the Army and Marine Corps by 100000 puts that many people back into the civilian workforce, with all the attendant disruptions that would cause.

Want something new about which to argue with your repug friends and relatives? Play Cut the Defense Budget at home.