William Hartung, a senior research fellow focusing on the arms industry and US military budget at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins the program to discuss reports that the Trump administration is planning “sweeping budget cuts” for the Pentagon. They talk about these “cuts” being more accurately termed “reinvestments” into other areas, the enormous amount of defense spending and the culture that engendered this, how the defense industry has changed in the past 20 years, actual moves that could meaningfully reduce the military budget like reducing bloated systems (F-35s, aircraft carriers) and overseas bases, whether there exists an influential constituency to support military budget cuts, and more.

Read William’s recent piece on this, “Hegseth orders 8% cut to Pentagon budget. Not so fast.”          

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