Plans underway to reshape military spending

By Hadas deGroot

President Obama’s Defense budget falls short on missile defense spending, say House Republicans.

Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced plans to scale-back and reshape military spending. Even though the 2010 budget includes a 4% increase overall, this marks a slow-down of the growth of defense spending which occurred during the Bush administration.

Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) said the cut-backs irresponsibly take money away from missile defense.

Recently returned from a trip to Syria, Israel, Gaza, and India, Inglis said, “When you see tangible evidence of the results of missiles in Israel, and all in the midst of this comes a launch by the North Koreans, it’s just a particularly bad idea to cut funding for this.”

Gates’ supporters say the balancing pf priorities marks a milestone for the Defense Department.

The United States could save billions by “Keeping ballistic missile defense in a research mode until the technologies are proven,” said Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress.