A 7 percent increase in the military’s civilian workforce under President Obama, combined with an 8 percent decrease in active-duty military personnel, is leaving us with an Army of bureaucrats.
When President Obama unveils his annual budget on Monday, watch his defense priorities. His State of the Union address presented plenty of new ideas to invest in nondefense domestic programs, but the Pentagon’s budget got zero mention—even as the specter of sequestration looms again for fiscal 2016. Mr. Obama’s track record as commander in chief is not encouraging: Under his stewardship, active-duty ground forces have been slashed while Defense Department civilians have flourished. For this president, it seems, bureaucracy beats combat power every time.
Since 2009 the Pentagon’s civilian workforce has grown by about 7% to almost 750,000, while active-duty military personnel have been cut by roughly 8%. At the same time, dozens of military-equipment and weapons programs have been canceled, including a new Navy cruiser, a new search-and-rescue helicopter, the F-22 fifth-generation fighter, the C-17 transport aircraft, missile defense and the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.
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