2d ago

Trump defense chief reportedly orders Pentagon to make cuts as IRS faces mass layoffs – live

www.theguardian.com Trump defense chief orders Pentagon to make cuts as IRS workers face mass layoffs – as it happened

Pete Hegseth orders leaders to develop plans to enact strict cuts while tax agency reportedly to lay off thousands

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth has ordered senior leaders at the Pentagon and throughout the US military to develop plans for cutting 8% from the defense budget in each of the next five years, according to a memo obtained by the Washington Post.

Hegseth ordered the proposed cuts to be drawn up by 24 February, according to the memo, which includes a list of 17 categories that the Trump administration wants exempted. Among them: operations at the southern US border, modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense and acquisition of one-way attack drones and other munitions. If adopted in full, the proposed cuts would include tens of billions of dollars in each of the next five years.

According to the Post, the memo calls for continued “support agency” funding for several major regional headquarters, including Indo-Pacific command, northern command and space command. Notably absent from that list is European command, which has had a leading role in executing US strategy during the war in Ukraine; central command, which oversees operations in the Middle East; and Africa command, which manages the several thousand troops the Pentagon has spread across that continent.

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Reminder to file your taxes as soon as humanly possible to get your refund out of the government's hands (if you're expecting one).
- I'm pretty sure muskrat already took it all
- Also consider no longer giving your government free loans through your tax returns.
  
  Also correct! Your withholding should only ever be set to give you a $100-$300 refund every year at absolute max, as you want to pay as close as you can to your true liability without incurring a tax bill when you file.
  
  Taxes are not "free loans." Libertarian nonsense. When implemented properly, which even U.S. taxes often are at a more local level, you get a shitload of return. You know, like paved roads and food that isn't full of dangerous pathogens.

i thought lord diaper insists upon 5 percent gdp for defense spending by nato members? he's whined about it for like a decade now.
cutting u.s. defense spending by that much might drop the u.s. to under the 2 percent specified by the treaty.
oh, right.
the 5 percent thing was actually a warning.
because he's gonna do the stupidest thing (so far) and withdraw the u.s. from nato.

Trump should avoid Dallas, right?

develop plans for cutting 8% from the defense budget in each of the next five years
I'm not sure whether that's an 8% reduction each year from the previous year, or each year 8% of the current budget gets cut.
In the former case, we have 65% of the existing US military left at the end. Probably less, since I assume that there's some overhead to cutting -- like, if you have to lay someone in the military off, you still need to pay their pension.
In the latter case, we have 60%.
In either case, that seems like a difficult, radical change.
kagis
It sounds like the 8% thing each year for each of five years is actually just 8% once:
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/02/19/white-house-eyes-annual-8-cut-to-defense-budget-through-2030/
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered senior military officials to develop a budget plan that would slash defense spending by 8%, a dramatic cut which could reshape military end-strength and readiness for decades
Total defense spending reached nearly $850 billion in fiscal 2024. The fiscal 2025 Defense Department budget has not yet been finalized, despite the new fiscal year starting last October.
The Washington Post reported the potential 8% cut as an annual reduction for five years. But in a memo sent out Wednesday evening, acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses said the goal was to find “offsets” in the fiscal 2026 budget plan, with a goal of finding at least $50 billion to transfer to “programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities.”
An 8% annual cut for the next five years would mean almost $300 billion less in military spending through fiscal 2030 compared to a stable budget figure. But most years, lawmakers approve increases in military spending at least equal to inflation, and often even higher than that.

A Trump policy I actually agree with? Didn't expect that one, he's going to be pissing off a lot of senators with that.

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