[treawittelf]

ahoy mateys!

i have read, time and time again, that our government's spendin' must be slashed. deficit hawks proclaim that our entitlement promises have to be rescinded, aye?

the folks on the left fill thar cannons and fire back, "we'd like to see some cuts in the military".

the mighty denizens on the right claim that big budget cuts to our military are happenin' and more are on the way.

i've thought about this claim and read up on it a bit, yarrrr!

The Pentagon released its budget for fiscal year 2011 this afternoon, and it is enormous—much larger, even adjusting for inflation, than any budget since World War II. What's more, some numbers buried within the budget suggest that it's set to grow larger still in the coming years—to a greater extent than the White House or the Defense Department acknowledges.

One bit of good news: Defense Secretary Robert Gates is more honest than his recent predecessors about how much money he's really requesting. The figure for FY 2011 is $708.2 billion—consisting of $548.9 billion for the "baseline" budget plus $159.3 billion to pay for "overseas contingency operations," mainly the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And, by the way, he says, tack on another $33 billion to the current year's budget, to pay for the 30,000 extra troops (and all their supplies, weapons, and so forth) that President Obama is sending to Afghanistan.

All told, that's $741.2 billion in new money—and Gates is upfront about it. President Obama*has proposed*the largest defense budget since World War II. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine

can any of ye swabby's show me some links that prove that there have been serious cuts in our amazing and enthusiastic dumpin' 'o funds into our military? i asks because, well...so many of ye say that cuts are happenin'.

prove it, aye?

- MeadHallPirate