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February 14, 2011November 12, 2013Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

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Pentagon Budget Peaks As U.S. Economic Strength Erodes

February 14, 2011November 12, 2013Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Defense secretary Robert Gates today unveils his last budget request before departing public service. It’s a good time to be going, because as the fiscal 2012 request reflects, increases in the buying power of the military budget are over. The budget proposed by Gates would spend $553 billion not counting overseas contingencies, which is $13 billion less than the department said it would request for 2012 a year ago. When you factor in the effects of inflation, the buying power of the budget is flat as a pancake, and likely to stay that way given the continuous erosion of U.S. economic strength over the last decade. The industrial sinews of the “arsenal of democracy” have atrophied to a point where even the intelligence community is now worried. Waning industrial strength not only calls into question the ability of the U.S. to maintain its edge in high-tech weaponry, but even to finance a global military presence over the long run. I have written an assessment of America’s industrial decline that appears today at Forbes.com. You can read the assessment here.

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