Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 12/2011

The Pentagon and Deficit Reduction: FY-2012 Budget Retains Exceptional Level of Defense Spending

March 2011

Project on Defense Alternatives

Abstract

President Obama's 2012 budget plan maps out a future of steady increases for the National Defense account (apart from war costs, which the budget presumes will decline). The budget sets the base or peacetime portion of national defense to rise from $551.9 billion in 2010 to $637.6 billion in 2016 - a boost of about 15.5%. This increase exceeds the expected rate of inflation by about seven-tenths of a percent per year.