Military money on chopping block in austere time

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, gestures during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, gestures during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, right, accompanied by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, gestures during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, right, accompanied by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, gestures during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

(AP) ? The Pentagon got nearly everything it asked for during a decade of two wars shadowed by the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the rise of al-Qaida. No more.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen acknowledged that reality Thursday, saying the military is resigned to budget cuts of around $350 billion over a decade to meet the public clamor for reducing the nation's debt. But they quickly warned that more than doubling those cuts along the lines of the "doomsday mechanism" spelled out in the new debt-limit law would undermine the military.

"If it happened ? and, God willing, that would not be the case ? but if it did happen, it would result in a further round of very dangerous cuts across the board, defense cuts that I believe would do real damage to our security, our troops and their families, and our military's ability to protect the nation," Panetta told reporters at his first Pentagon news conference.

Mullen, who has said repeatedly that the debt is the greatest national security threat, said any cut on that order "jeopardizes our ability to deal with the other very real and very serious threats we face around the world."

Reflecting the widespread demand for fiscal austerity, the compromise debt deal struck by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders this week will slice $350 billion from projected military spending over the next 10 years, and it leaves open the possibility of more than $500 billion in additional reductions.

Defense spending, which has nearly doubled in the last decade, is no longer untouchable in Washington.

Tea partyers and fierce fiscal conservatives in Congress are more willing to include Pentagon dollars in their mix of budget cuts despite opposition from veteran defense hawks. The death of Osama bin Laden, the diminished role of al-Qaida and the winding down of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have prompted some lawmakers to question the need for such robust military spending.

Among the things that could be on the block: A troubled new jet fighter, expensive plans to modernize the nation's nuclear arsenal and perhaps some of the gold-plated benefits now guaranteed to military retirees.

"I think programs that can't meet schedule, that can't meet cost ... requirements are very much in jeopardy and will be very much under scrutiny," Mullen said.

The prospect of nearly $1 trillion in cuts unnerves military leaders, troubles lawmakers protective of the Pentagon and has touched off a scramble in the defense industry as contractors look to spare their multibillion-dollar weapons programs.

In sounding an alarm, Panetta is pressuring Democrats and Republicans to consider making concessions on their core priorities ? entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security defended by Democrats, and increases in taxes resisted by Republicans ? before taking a sharper knife to defense. The former Democratic congressman and budget chief in the Clinton administration delivered a clear message to leaders of both parties.

"You cannot deal with the size deficits that this country is confronting by simply cutting the discretionary side of the budget," said Panetta. "If you're going to deal with those size deficits, you've got to look at the mandatory side of the budget, which is two-thirds of the federal budget, and you also have to look at revenues as part of that answer."

Just back from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Mullen faced repeated questions from troops worried that their pay and benefits would be cut.

"Our men and women downrange have enough to worry about just getting the job done," Mullen said Thursday. "They shouldn't also be concerned about whether or not they will be paid to do that job, or whether or not their families will continue to get the support they need during long absences."

Sitting side-by-side with Panetta at the Pentagon, Mullen pointed out that the military has a crowded must-do list: wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, support for the NATO-led operation in Libya, disaster relief missions in Haiti and Japan and defense of national interests.

Clearly reflecting the frustration building around the Pentagon and across the military, the defense leaders made it clear that while they will find the nearly $400 billion in initial savings required, that's where they draw the line. Military leaders think they are already carrying their fair share of the cost-cutting burden while still being asked to respond to terrorist threats, nuclear-armed rogue nations and other conflicts.

Defense budgets, not including the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have jumped since 9/11, from just over $370 billion in the late 1990s to around $550 billion today. In the political clamor to slash the deficit, Obama this past spring called for $400 billion in defense cuts over 12 years and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates launched a comprehensive review of the military's strategy and capabilities.

That review could be completed by the end of the summer.

Setting the agenda now is the debt-limit deal to cut more than $2 trillion from federal spending over a decade.

In the initial phase, all security spending ? money for defense, homeland security, veterans, foreign aid and intelligence ? would be cut from the current level of $687 billion this year to $683 billion in next year's budget. Defense would take a share of that $4 billion reduction.

The next step is the unknown that Panetta fears: A 12-member, House-Senate committee must propose up to $1.5 trillion more in government-wide cuts over a decade and do so by Nov. 23. If the committee deadlocks or if Congress rejects its recommendations, the Obama administration would be required to impose automatic, across-the-board spending cuts of up to $1.2 trillion, with half coming from defense.

The budget proposals provide no specifics, but several programs are often mentioned as possible targets.

Ten years in, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a multibillion-dollar aircraft, has been plagued by cost overruns and delays. The cost of buying more than 2,400 of the next-generation aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps has jumped from $233 billion to $385 billion. Recent estimates say the entire program could exceed $1 trillion over 50 years.

Another potential target is the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), a multinational missile defense program with Italy and Germany. The Pentagon said earlier this year it would not implement the program, though research will continue for another two years at a cost of more than $800 million. Among the other targets are the numbers of ships and submarines the Pentagon buys.

One of the most costly programs for the Defense Department is its health care coverage for some 10 million active duty personnel, retirees, reservists and their families. The cost has jumped from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion.

Obama proposed increasing the fees for working-age retirees in the decades-old health program, known as TRICARE, but has encountered resistance from lawmakers and various associations for military retirees.

Debt-limit negotiators looked at changes in the program for possible savings, and the special bipartisan committee is likely to consider the program in its calculations.

Mullen noted that while the Army and Marine Corp have grown over the past 10 years, those numbers will be reduced in the next several years. The Army already is on pace to drop from 570,000 to about 520,000, and the Marines will cut about 15,000 from their current total of about 202,000.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-08-04-Debt%20Showdown-Defense/id-75ba1b60efe84796bde1f31403c8aa3d

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How do you prepare a personal budget and find your financial future

For those who learn to control their finances, how you want to regain prepare a personal budget is the first step. Unfortunately, most people are not so important as a budget and live as such rather paycheck to paycheck, they always ask where the money went there, waited for the next payday. If so, that around your house, then creating a monthly budget of families could make you free, and financially.

The other thingseems for most people to scare off what a budget that they think is a kind of complicated mathematical formulation. But in reality could not be further from the truth. A budget is really quite simple. In its simplest form is simply a comparison of revenues and expenses. Only two columns on a sheet of paper.

That's all you need to get a piece of paper or a notebook and a pencil. To write down on a sheet of paper your sources Income for the month and add it to what is obviously your monthly income. On another sheet of paper that you create your own list of spending. This is a bit more "complicated, but once again not a science, it is only a matter of recording all necessary information. It is necessary to divide the expenses into categories and these divided categories relevant to further help you get control over be your expenses.

Below is an example of how your list> Expenditure Budget.

Housing and communal economy

? A mortgage or rent payment
? Insurance
? Taxes and electricity
? Natural Gas
? Water and waste collection

Fun

? Cable TV or satellite service
? Internet access
? Restaurants
? Bar Club

? Sporting events, parties, lectures and concerts

Health and Beauty

? Hair cuts, perms, etc.
? Make-up
? Medical, dental, vision, weight loss, diet products
? NutritionSupplements

Transport

? Car payments, insurance
? Gas
? Routine maintenance, repairs
? Air traffic
? Rent a car, public transport

Communication

? Telephone
? Mobile
? Voice mail

Home

? Food
? Cleaning Products
? Laundry, Dry Cleaning
? Home improvement projects, towels,

Other

? Payments by credit card
? Other loan payments
? Child care, items for children / seniors
-Allowances for children, book clubs, magazines, music, etc., fast food
? Investments, holiday, spending money, donations to church or charity
? Gifts (Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)
? Emergency Fund
? Cigarettes.

This gives you a good idea of how you structure your budget, but the individual costs may be different, so they fit your needs.

Once you get your monthly income and expenditure in all, you can immediately see if, as a goodMost people are, you spend more than you do. If so, you can now start your newly created budget cutting expenses that are not really necessary. Can help There are many areas that we spend a lot each day and see it written down you kill these unnecessary costs.

If you prepare a personal budget for the first time that we faint not. You may not like what you see, but this is the perfect opportunity toYour financial affairs back in order. Setting up a personal budget, your money, what to do and when it says to do, so you can control to create a bright future financially.

Source: http://finance-budgeting.chailit.com/how-do-you-prepare-a-personal-budget-and-find-your-financial-future.html

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ABC Family gets 'excellent' rating from GLAAD

(AP) ? The advocacy group GLAAD rated ABC Family as "excellent" in its portrayal of gay and lesbian characters, only the second television network to get such a designation in the five years the group has monitored television content.

ABC Family, the top-rated cable network among viewers ages 12 to 34 and particularly strong among girls and young women, was cited for both a large number of gay and lesbian characters and the way those characters fit naturally into the shows.

The only other network judged "excellent" by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was MTV last year.

"We're incredibly proud to be honored and acknowledged by GLAAD," said Michael Riley, ABC Family's chief executive. "It's very important for us."

The network's young audience expects the nation's diversity to be reflected in the programming, he said.

ABC Family's popular "Pretty Little Liars" features Emily, one of four teenage girls, as an athlete who came out as a lesbian. "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" also had several gay and lesbian characters in the past year, including a mother who told her son that she was a lesbian. "Make It or Break It" has a recurring character who is a bisexual. The just-concluded series "Greek" has had four GLAAD Media Award nominations, and included the love story of a gay fraternity brother.

Viewers can relate to many of ABC Family's characters because they are multidimensional people who happen to be gay and lesbian ? it's not the sole part of their on-air identity, said Herndon Graddick, GLAAD's senior director of programs.

"It gives the audience an opportunity to learn in a way they might not have," Graddick said.

The young audience that ABC Family seeks expects diversity in the characters presented, Riley said. The network has been particularly successful lately: July represented the first time it was No. 1 among all cable networks in viewers ages 12 to 34 and among women of the same age group, according to the Nielsen Co.

ABC Family started in 1977 as an extension of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. Even though it was sold to the Walt Disney Co. in 2001, ABC Family is contractually required to air Robertson's "The 700 Club." A network revamp in 2006 brought its current focus on teenagers and young adults.

GLAAD saw little change among the broadcast networks that it studied over the past year. The youth-oriented CW network has the highest percentage of prime-time hours where lesbian and gay characters are featured, while CBS has the least, the group said.

GLAAD said lesbians and transgender people are particularly poorly represented on TV. Its study showed that 73 percent of the time when a gay or lesbian character was part of the mix, it was a gay male.

___

Online:

http://www.glaad.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-08-03-TV-GLAAD%20Study/id-cb87082429bf4397b56bd6c06ef4f13e

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