The Price of Success: Obama’s Efforts to Reform Military Spending in the Midst of Two U.S. Wars

DEVELOPMENTS

Speaking before a national Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. President Barack Obama had sharp words for members of Congress. “If Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with a bunch of pork, I will veto it.” Obama’s warning comes after the House approved in late July by a vote of 400-30 a $636 billion Pentagon spending bill, as the Pentagon executes an obstacle-laden withdrawal from Iraq while shifting U.S. military might to Afghanistan.

Obama’s reasons for moderating the defense budget are many.  To name a few, record levels of government spending to combat the financial crisis and stimulate the recession economy has diminished the government’s stores of financial flexibility, stores which it must ration ever more scrupulously to achieve the Obama administration’s ambitious agenda – a public healthcare option, alternative energy entrepreneurship, and an expanded diplomatic corps. Most significantly for the Pentagon, a long-standing call for reforming defense spending, contracting and procurement, most recently espoused by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Foreign Affairs magazine, is also motivating Obama’s stern message.   The administration’s success or failure in achieving the defense spending reforms it seeks will profoundly affect not only the Iraq and Afghan wars, but also the future of U.S. military policy.

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