Defense Department having money-managing problems
Walter Pincus, Washington Post "Fine Print" columnist, 8/9/12
I know Congress is locked in partisan gridlock, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said on Monday, adding, They cant figure out what the hell theyre going to do to try to deal with this issue.
He was talking in Monterey, Calif., in his old congressional district, about the sequestration threat and the possibility that the defense budget in which planned Pentagon spending over the next 10 years already has been reduced by $487 billion will be hit with an additional $500 billion across-the-board cut if Congress does not produce a debt-reduction plan this year.
What Panetta didnt mention is the Defense Departments problems managing the huge sums of money it has received during a decade of warfare, when hundreds of billions of dollars overwhelmed its ability to oversee outlays.
He recalled that after World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam, cuts were made across the board, weakening the entire military, hollowing out the force.
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/defense-department-having-money-managing-problems/2012/08/08/f08accac-e0a6-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_story.html