{"id":997,"date":"2012-10-11T14:25:43","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T14:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/megalextoria.wordpress.com\/?p=997"},"modified":"2012-10-11T14:25:43","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T14:25:43","slug":"army-to-congress-thanks-but-no-tanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/10\/11\/army-to-congress-thanks-but-no-tanks\/","title":{"rendered":"Army to Congress: Thanks, but no tanks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

If you need an example of why it is hard to cut the budget in Washington look no further than this Army depot in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada range.<\/p>\n

CNN was allowed rare access to what amounts to a parking lot for more than 2,000 M-1 Abrams tanks. Here, about an hour\u2019s drive north of Reno, Nevada, the tanks have been collecting dust in the hot California desert because of a tiff between the Army and Congress.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has more than enough combat tanks in the field to meet the nation\u2019s defense needs – so there\u2019s no sense in making repairs to these now, the Army\u2019s chief of staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told Congress earlier this year.<\/p>\n

If the Pentagon holds off repairing, refurbishing or making new tanks for three years until new technologies are developed, the Army says it can save taxpayers as much as $3 billion.<\/p>\n

That may seem like a lot of money, but it\u2019s a tiny sacrifice for a Defense Department that will cut $500 billion from its budget over the next decade and may be forced to cut a further $500 billion if a deficit cutting deal is not reached by Congress.<\/p>\n

Why is this a big deal? For one, the U.S. hasn\u2019t stopped producing tanks since before World War II, according to lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Plus, from its point of view the Army would prefer to decide what it needs and doesn\u2019t need to keep America strong while making tough economic cuts elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a relatively conservative institution like the U.S. military, which doesn\u2019t like to take risks because risks get people killed, says it has enough tanks, I think generally civilians should be inclined to believe them,\u201d said Travis Sharp a fellow at the defense think tank, New American Security.<\/p>\n

But guess which group of civilians isn\u2019t inclined to agree with the generals on this point?<\/p>\n

Congress.<\/p>\n

To be exact, 173 House members – Democrats and Republicans – sent a letter April 20 to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, urging him to continue supporting their decision to produce more tanks.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right. Lawmakers who frequently and loudly proclaim that presidents should listen to generals when it comes to battlefield decisions are refusing to take its own advice.<\/p>\n

Full article: http:\/\/security.blog \u2026 -no-tanks\/?hpt=hp_c1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you need an example of why it is hard to cut the budget in Washington look no further than this Army depot in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada range. CNN was allowed rare access to what amounts to a parking lot for more than 2,000 M-1 Abrams tanks. Here, about an hour\u2019s drive north of Reno, Nevada, the tanks have been collecting dust in the hot California desert because of a tiff between the Army and Congress. The U.S. has more than enough combat tanks in the field to meet the nation\u2019s defense needs – so there\u2019s no sense in making repairs to these now, the Army\u2019s chief of staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told Congress earlier this year. If the Pentagon holds off repairing, refurbishing or making new tanks for three years until new technologies are developed, the Army says it can save taxpayers as much as $3 billion. That may seem like a lot of money, but it\u2019s a tiny sacrifice for a Defense Department that will cut $500 billion from its budget over the next decade and may be forced to cut a further $500 billion if a deficit cutting deal is not reached by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[361,560,1359],"class_list":["post-997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-budget","tag-deficit","tag-pork-barrel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}