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Going for the blunderbuss
The big weapons have moved in. On February 13, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff went over the top of the trench, grabbed the biggest artillery piece he could find and charged the enemy,...
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The gentleman from Nevada yields…to the Pentagon
Everyone is talking about the proposal Senate Democrats are putting forward to avert a budget sequester on March 1. No text has been released yet, but this fact sheet makes it clear that this...
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How like the services...
In the absence of the Congress -- now in recess -- the Army, Navy, and Air Force have continued to litter the universe with more confetti about sequester. For those of you familiar with Carl Builder's...
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The Navy's sequester blame game
In all the festering about sequestering, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb: the Navy's decision not to deploy a second carrier to the Gulf -- a decision it is blaming on sequester. All the other...
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The budgetary theater of the absurd
As we step onto the stage for the next act of the budgetary drama, things seem to make less and less sense. The budgetary solution shimmers on the road ahead, then evaporates as members of Congress...
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Howling into the wind
It has been said that the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same failing thing, hoping the outcome will be different the next time. A good part of the U.S. defense industry is clearly...
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Calming 'sequesteria'
There were always two shells in the double-barreled shotgun aimed at the Defense Department. One was sequester. The other -- the one the Pentagon was really worried about -- was the continuing...
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The Ryan Express strikes again
Well, the first round in the FY 2014 budget wars has begun. The Republicans, led by Paul Ryan, have made their latest offer in the non-stop non-negotiation on taxes and spending. And when it comes to...
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Congress is sending Hagel a signal
The Senate appropriators have been struggling all week to complete a companion bill to the one passed in the House last week, providing money for this fiscal year for DOD and several other federal...
View ArticleThis war is still going
It is the budget war, and the Pentagon has not given up fighting -- to the point of creating an endless stream of propaganda-like appearances and news pieces, many of them circulated by the American...
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The end of fear: Facing reality about defense spending
The federal budget is coming out next week. The defense part has been declared dead on arrival because it does not take sequestration into account, just works off of last year's request and projects...
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Harry Reid's budgetary parlor tricks
Senator Harry Reid is about to become a magician. Next Tuesday he plans to introduce a bill that would eliminate the FY 2013 sequester, paying for it using ghost-like savings from the declining...
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The defense industry still lives in a cocoon
Last year the Aerospace Industries Association took aim at the budget sequester on behalf of its members and mounted a visible and expensive campaign to prevent it. They ran out a study done by Steven...
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See no sequester, hear no sequester, speak no sequester
We are about to step through the defense budget looking glass. This week, Congress is picking up the public process of deciding, or appearing to decide, how much money the Department of Defense will...
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A Wink and Nod Toward Sequestration
While the nation swirls in the Sufi-dance around surveillance, the congressional defense committees have had their heads down, marking up the DOD money bills for the coming fiscal year (FY 2014). When...
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