Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Monday that his efforts to trim a bloated defense budget will require the military to slash its spending on defense contractors, reduce the number of top-level military officials, and close the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va. Gates has ordered a 10 percent cut on contractor spending, and he's requiring the Defense Department to eliminate at least 50 general and admiral posts over the next two years. But the biggest cuts will come at the Joint Forces Command, which he says can be done away with entirely. According to the New York Times, the base employs more than 5,000 people "at an annual cost of $240 million." The work once carried out by the Joint Forces Command will be reassigned, "mostly to the Joint Staff." The Times says Pentagon staffers cannot "recall a time in recent history when a major command was shut down and vanished off the books."
Kathleen Sebelius please take note.
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