Spending to be cut by $78 billion over 5 years
White House Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced yesterday the Pentagon will cut projected spending by $78 billion over the next five years, as well as reduce the size of the Army and Marines. Increases to the Pentagon’s budget will barely meet inflation rates over the next couple years, and by 2015 and 2016, it will be virtually frozen. The announcement comes after both Democrats and Republicans criticized the defense budget on Capitol Hill, though Gates said actually cutting the $553 billion defense budget would be “risky at best and potentially calamitous,” reported the Washington Post. However, leaders of a bipartisan deficit commission have recommended cutting $100 billion in defense spending by 2015.