Rumsfeld: Attack Imminent If Congress Cuts Defense
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Bloomberg news
White House Directs $25 Billion More in Defense Cuts to Fund VA
Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- -- The White House has directed the Pentagon to reduce its 10-year spending plan by another $25 billion, on top of the roughly $450 billion it's already planning to cut, according to three government officials.
The Office of Management and Budget directed the action because the White House decided to protect Veterans Administration medical funding from cuts, said one the officials. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because the change hasn't been announced.
The reduction might mean a $1 billion cut in the pending $513 billion defense bill for fiscal 2012, said the official, who was familiar with the OMB action. The bill's already been reduced $26 billion from the Pentagon's original budget request, meaning about no increase from current year spending.
The OMB guidance came down in early September, said one of the three sources.
A $27 billion reduction remains within the range laid out in the Budget Control Act signed into law Aug. 2. For the fiscal years beginning in 2013, the new cut would average an additional $2.5 billion a year, the official said.
The Budget Control Act has an overall cap for fiscal 2012 and 2013 that includes the Defense Department, State Department, Veterans Administration and Department of Homeland Security, so to protect this veterans funding means that all other accounts in the security budget will have to be cut that much more, said Todd Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a non-partisan budget analysis group in Washington.
VA Health Costs
The President's fiscal 2012 budget request included $52.6 billion for veteran's health care. The VA's discretionary budget and veteran's health care budget is projected to reach $60 billion by fiscal 2016, Harrison said.
The Pentagon may get hit with another $500 billion over 10 years in automatic cuts if the supercommittee in Congress fails to find $1.5 trillion in overall federal savings, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told a business group last week the cumulative cuts might be as high as $1.1 trillion. That would represent between 15 and 18 percent of an estimated $6.14 trillion 10-year spending projection, according to administration figures.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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