Overhaul Pentagon Budget

The Task Force on a Unified Security Budget for the United States, 2007, calls in particular for shaving $62 billion from the pending 2007 defense budget of nearly $440 billion, with most of the cuts coming from advanced weapons systems that have little relevance to threats faced by Washington today.

Of those savings, $52 billion should be added to homeland security, particularly to upgrade port inspections, and to diplomatic accounts, such as foreign aid, that are designed to reduce or preempt discontent or hostility toward the U.S. before it develops into an actual military threat, according to the task force report, which was sponsored by the Center for Defense Information (CDI), the Security Policy Working Group, and Foreign Policy in Focus.