October 06, 2011

Command Post: "OK...I'll Bite: Why is Cutting the Defense Budget So Tough?"

By Nora Bensahel

So just what is it that makes cutting the defense budget so difficult? How much is objectively hard, and how much is subjective, due to pork, politics and precedent? John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and I discuss the topic with Todd Harrison, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and Nora Benshahel, a defense analyst at CNAS, to try to figure out why it's so tough to wield the budgetary knife.