Late Saturday evening, the House voted 220-215 for passage of the Democratic leadership's healthcare bill. Now the bill moves to the Senate. But there’s another topic related to spending that will soon return to Capitol Hill – military and defense spending.
In fiscal year 2009, the U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted for 21% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures and 24% of estimated tax revenues.
The government has been severely criticized for the millions of dollars of money that is wasted away in military and defense spending. President Obama has pledged to significantly reduce Pentagon waste. The president was quoted as saying, "I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure."
In October the president signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which is designed to reduce Pentagon waste. When signing the bill, Obama stated, “The Government Accountability Office, the GAO, has looked into 96 major defense projects from the last year and found cost overruns that totaled $296 billion, an amount of money that would have paid our troops' salaries and provided benefits for their families for more than a year.”
The law is already impacting major defense contracting companies. On Monday, Nothrop Grumman Corp. announced it is selling its government-consulting unit to General Atlantic LLC for $1.65 billion to comply with new conflict-of-interest regulations.
When Washington returns its attention to defense spending talks, an area that needs stepping up is protecting U.S. soldiers from Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs. According The Monitor, the Government Accountability Office’s latest report shows the U.S. military still has difficulties coordinating efforts to defend itself against IEDs, the No. 1 threat to troops in Afghanistan.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that in 2008 rebel insurgents used a record 3,276 IEDs. “This year troop casualty numbers continue to increase. Through April 69% more soldiers were killed than during the same period last year. And military officials predict that IED activity will increase another 50% this year.”
In an article on NPR, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he is making it “a priority to get the troops in Afghanistan what they need to protect them from IEDs.”
"To accomplish this, I have ordered additional intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to Afghanistan," he says.
“Defense spending will continue to be a major issue for the new administration,” says Michael Robinson of BreakAway Investor. Michael, an investigative reporter for the Taipan Publishing Group, has uncovered companies that have won major defense contracts with the government.
“Many of these companies have an innovative edge or technology that meets many of the government’s demands for greater protection,” says Robinson.
Robinson has found that often these companies turn out to be strong investments for readers. Each month in BreakAway Investor he profiles one of these companies. You can learn more about BreakAway Investor right here.
Other Articles Related To This Topic:
