thedrifter
02-01-07, 07:38 PM
Analyst: Corps likely to do well in budget
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 1, 2007 18:51:12 EST
The Marine Corps is well positioned to win congressional support for an end-strength increase of 22,000 leathernecks despite a daunting budget season, according to one top defense analyst.
The race to claim defense funding during a tight budget year will spark interservice rivalry, said Robert Work, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, during a pre-budget briefing Wednesday.
“Congress can fan the flames of this natural interservice rivalry if they purposefully start to take big chunks of money from one service to another, which would then create blocks within Congress that would fight against each other,” Work said.
“I believe the Army and the Marine Corps have the strongest position now simply because of the enormous strains they’ve been put under because of the war,” he added.
Expanding the Army and Corps’ end strength could cost $100 billion, said Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies at the center.
The Army, which plans to increase its permanent end strength by 65,000 to a total of 547,000, says the five-year cost will be about $70 billion, including $18 billion for procurement, Kosiak said. Assuming the per-troop cost is about the same for both services, the Corps would likely need about $30 billion to pay for its planned increase, including about $7 billion for procurement, he said.
The Pentagon is poised to release its fiscal 2008 budget request Monday. Defense spending for 2007 has reached $630 billion, including a $100 billion emergency war-time supplemental funding, Kosiak said.
“That’s about $150 billion more than we spent at the height of Vietnam War,” he said.
Ellie
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 1, 2007 18:51:12 EST
The Marine Corps is well positioned to win congressional support for an end-strength increase of 22,000 leathernecks despite a daunting budget season, according to one top defense analyst.
The race to claim defense funding during a tight budget year will spark interservice rivalry, said Robert Work, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, during a pre-budget briefing Wednesday.
“Congress can fan the flames of this natural interservice rivalry if they purposefully start to take big chunks of money from one service to another, which would then create blocks within Congress that would fight against each other,” Work said.
“I believe the Army and the Marine Corps have the strongest position now simply because of the enormous strains they’ve been put under because of the war,” he added.
Expanding the Army and Corps’ end strength could cost $100 billion, said Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies at the center.
The Army, which plans to increase its permanent end strength by 65,000 to a total of 547,000, says the five-year cost will be about $70 billion, including $18 billion for procurement, Kosiak said. Assuming the per-troop cost is about the same for both services, the Corps would likely need about $30 billion to pay for its planned increase, including about $7 billion for procurement, he said.
The Pentagon is poised to release its fiscal 2008 budget request Monday. Defense spending for 2007 has reached $630 billion, including a $100 billion emergency war-time supplemental funding, Kosiak said.
“That’s about $150 billion more than we spent at the height of Vietnam War,” he said.
Ellie