Obama’s Defense Budget Aims Higher, and at Overseas Conflicts - NYTimes.com: President Obama is asking the new Republican Congress for a base defense budget of $534 billion in 2016, the Pentagon said on Monday in its annual budget release, exceeding by $35 billion the mandatory across-the-board reductions known as sequestration.
Separately, Mr. Obama is asking for an additional $51 billion to pay for operations in the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, as well as the continued American military presence in Afghanistan.
The administration said next year’s overall military spending was a continuation of efforts to take into account the fiscal reality of government austerity and the political reality of a president who pledged to end two costly and exhausting land wars. The result, administration officials say, will be a military that continues to be capable of defeating any adversary but is too small for protracted foreign occupations.
