K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: US military chief warns on Federal spending

Edward Luce & Daniel Dombey:

The Pentagon needs to take prompt action to bring its spending under control to stave off the kind of "drastic" defence cuts afflicting Britain and Germany, according to Mike Mullen, the most senior US military official.

Referring to the 20 per cent or more cuts recently announced by America's key European allies, Admiral Mullen said the Pentagon only had a limited time in which to act before similar changes would be imposed upon the country, given the sharply rising level of US national debt.

"If we do not figure out how to manage ourselves inside this growing challenge [of fiscal austerity] then I do worry that it won't be too long before those kinds of cuts will be part of our future as well, and that would be very dangerous," Admiral Mullen said in a View from DC video interview with the Financial Times.

The Pentagon raising a flag on debt and spending is rather remarkable. Related: State and company officials should heed message from Harley vote.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 15, 2010 11:13 AM
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