Military Budget

BEIJING — China's top leaders kicked off their annual parliamentary meeting Tuesday with a clear statement of national priorities: Military spending this year will grow by 10.7 percent, even in the face of modest projections for economic growth. The figures, included in a report delivered by China's outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao, came with standard praise for the past year's work. But his remarks were sprinkled with admissions of problems that he and President Hu Jintao were leaving their...

Liberals are increasingly facing a conundrum as the Pentagon experiences the deepest cuts in a generation: The significant reductions in military spending that they have long sought are also taking a huge bite out of economic growth. Liberal lawmakers and others on the left have argued for years that the military budget is bloated and should be dramatically scaled back. At the same time, they have been major advocates of government spending to help drive economic growth and create jobs.

Liberals are increasingly facing a conundrum as the Pentagon experiences the deepest cuts in a generation: The significant reductions in military spending that they have long sought are also taking a huge bite out of economic growth. Liberal lawmakers and others on the left have argued for years that the military budget is bloated and should be dramatically scaled back. At the same time, they have been major advocates of government spending to help drive economic growth and create jobs.

Declining national influence is a choice, and America seems to be making it. What foreign policy practitioners politely call the "churn" of events is beginning to look more like chaos. Egypt teeters between the establishment of a democracy and the restoration of the caliphate. Syria melts away as an organized state and perhaps as a geographic fact. Iran is on the verge of building the Shiite bomb and igniting a sectarian nuclear arms race (and you thought a purely ideological nuclear arms race was scary)

Americans are souring on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military budget is under siege as Congress looks for spending to cut. And the Army is reporting record suicide rates among soldiers. So who does the Pentagon enlist for help in such painful circumstances? Hollywood. In June, the Army negotiated a first-of-its-kind sponsorship deal with the producers of "X-Men: First Class," backing it up with ads telling potential recruits that they could live out superhero fantasies on real-life battlefields.

In Michael O'Hanlon's analysis that the Obama administration is underfunding the Pentagon [ "Obama's Defense Budget Gap," op-ed, June 10], he failed to address the most important question: What is the mission that would justify perpetuating the colossal U.S. military budget? Should the United States occupy Iraq and Afghanistan indefinitely (Mr. O'Hanlon has supported both wars)? Are our huge military budget, which at more than $600 billion per year is almost as large as those of the rest of the world's countries combined, and...

The new concept of American overseas military operations known as " Air-Sea Battle " has come under scrutiny and criticism. Popular with the Air Force and Navy, it has been construed as an aggressive policy, and some in the Pentagon see it as a way for those two services to grab budget share away from the Army. Across Asia, especially in China, many view it as a way for the United States to challenge a rising People's Republic. In fact, as a military concept, Air-Sea Battle reflects some needed rethinking in response to global...

Stephen Daggett, a specialist on national defense and the military budget at the Library of Congress's Congressional Research Service, died April 17 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District. He was 63. He had complications from multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, said his wife, Diana Gilpatrick. Mr. Daggett worked as a military budget and defense specialist at several Washington area think tanks before joining the Congressional Research Service in 1989. He helped brief...

Regarding the Nov. 7 editorial " Defense on the rocks ": Automatic cuts to military spending are not an ideal approach because they interfere with rational planning. But the Pentagon's ambitious spending plans can be reduced by $1 trillion over the next decade — gradually and in conjunction with a revision of the Pentagon's far-flung missions — without undercutting essential capabilities. Military spending is at its highest levels since World War II, and it has increased for 13 years running.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's visit this week is an opportunity for the man who is likely to lead China from late 2012 to late 2022 to begin to develop the agenda for that decade with a president who may well serve until January 2017. Yet this visit comes at a time of growing strategic distrust between China and the United States. China, despite some problems , remains on a roll. Its economy has rapidly expanded to second-largest in the world, with gross domestic product continuing to advance...

BEIJING — China's top leaders kicked off their annual parliamentary meeting Tuesday with a clear statement of national priorities: Military spending this year will grow by 10.7 percent, even in the face of modest projections for economic growth. The figures, included in a report delivered by China's outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao, came with standard praise for the past year's work. But his remarks were sprinkled with admissions of problems that he and President Hu Jintao were leaving their...

Cutler Dawson has seen this all before: Fears of widespread government budget cuts, military pullbacks and furloughs for federal workers. "It's nothing new," said Dawson, the 65-year-old president and chief executive of Navy Federal Credit Union. "In the life of Navy Federal, we've seen that happen over and over again. " The Vienna-based credit union — the largest in the world — has grown rapidly in recent years, having added 1 million members since 2011. During...

Everyone has something to say about Chuck Hagel. Conservatives decry his past statements on Israel, concerns about his willingness to cut the military budget, and his " soft" positions on Iran. Liberals have spoken out against him for past comments about a gay ambassador, the fact that he's a Republican, and the idea that a woman—former Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy—might have been a better pick. But all the hubbub over a potential...

This election campaign continues to frustrate voters, as the candidates fail to answer the fundamental question: What is the plan for creating good jobs and an economy that works for working people? Unemployment has dropped to 7.8 percent, according to the latest jobs report. Inheriting an economy in free fall, President Obama has managed to create more jobs in four years than President Bush did in eight. Yet, more than 20 million people are in need of full-time work, and neither candidate has a serious proposal to...

The new concept of American overseas military operations known as " Air-Sea Battle " has come under scrutiny and criticism. Popular with the Air Force and Navy, it has been construed as an aggressive policy, and some in the Pentagon see it as a way for those two services to grab budget share away from the Army. Across Asia, especially in China, many view it as a way for the United States to challenge a rising People's Republic. In fact, as a military concept, Air-Sea Battle reflects some needed rethinking in...

Stephen Daggett, a specialist on national defense and the military budget at the Library of Congress's Congressional Research Service, died April 17 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District. He was 63. He had complications from multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, said his wife, Diana Gilpatrick. Mr. Daggett worked as a military budget and defense specialist at several Washington area think tanks before joining the Congressional Research Service in 1989. He helped brief...

Declining national influence is a choice, and America seems to be making it. What foreign policy practitioners politely call the "churn" of events is beginning to look more like chaos. Egypt teeters between the establishment of a democracy and the restoration of the caliphate. Syria melts away as an organized state and perhaps as a geographic fact. Iran is on the verge of building the Shiite bomb and igniting a sectarian nuclear arms race (and you thought a purely ideological nuclear arms race was scary)

In criticizing President Obama's proposed further cuts in the military budget, the April 21 editorial " Mr. Obama's defense cuts " acknowledged that the cuts could be made but suggested that those cuts should come from military pay and benefits rather than reductions in the size and scope of our military activities. The editorial's preferred approach overlooks the fact that the United States — which comprises 5 percent of the world's population and just under a quarter of the world's economic output — accounts for...

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's visit this week is an opportunity for the man who is likely to lead China from late 2012 to late 2022 to begin to develop the agenda for that decade with a president who may well serve until January 2017. Yet this visit comes at a time of growing strategic distrust between China and the United States. China, despite some problems , remains on a roll. Its economy has rapidly expanded to second-largest in the world, with gross domestic product continuing to advance...

Ron Paul has endeared himself to many by refusing to back down from policy ideas that fall far from the GOP mainstream consensus. In Monday night's debate, some of those views earned him boos from the audience. As AP reported : Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul says he will make deep cuts to the military budget even though many voters in South Carolina and elsewhere are employed by the military. The Texas congressman was grilled Monday...