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| U.S. SecDef Ashton Carter (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Franz-Stefan Gady
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter defends the Pentagon’s budget request in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee
Just two weeks into his new job, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is aggressively attacking proposed spending cuts while defending the fiscal year 2016 defense budget request of $534 billion in base budget and $51 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO). The budget request exceeds congressionally mandated spending caps by $38 billion.
Testifying in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee along with the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, Carter vehemently emphasized: “This committee and this Congress will determine whether our troops … can continue to defend our nation’s interests around the world with the readiness, capability and excellence our nation has grown accustomed to, and sometimes taken for granted.”
“Halting and reversing the decline in defense spending imposed by the [2011] Budget Control Act, the president’s budget would give us the resources we need to execute our nation’s defense strategy. It would ensure we field a modern, ready force in a balanced way, while also embracing change and reform, because asking for more taxpayer dollars requires we hold up our end of the bargain — by ensuring that every dollar is well spent,” the defense secretary said.
Read the full story at The Diplomat