President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have made difficult decisions to rebalance the Department of Defense budget in their proposal for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010, a Washington think tank leader stated.
Andrew Krepinevich is president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
He predicted that the budget plan “will enhance our overall military capabilities. Hopefully this is the start of a much-needed debate on the state of the nation’s defense posture.”
Todd Harrison, a CSBA fellow for defense budget studies, said, “Overall, I think this is a good start toward rebalancing the defense budget to focus more on the threats we face today and better match resources with strategy. In preparing this budget, Secretary Gates made a number of difficult decisions, and that has cleared the way for the QDR to better focus on some of the major outstanding issues that remain.”
To read the budget review in full, please go to http://www.csbaonline.org/4Publications/PubLibrary/U. 20090507.Gates_Submits_Refo/U.20090507.Gates_Submits_Refo.pdf on the Web.