Reply #5: Just so everyone "gets" this--the easiest place to cut defense spending is PERSONNEL COSTS

[MADem]

That means RIF. It can mean civilian personnel layoffs, force reshaping, more gutting and cutting (that would be Navy first, Air Force second, given the wars we're fighting) and it would throw more people out into the unemployment pool.

When DOD is told to cut, that's how they do it. The shore installations start doing with less. They'll even close entrance gates at large bases permanently in order to fire guards (and they're using civilian guards, not servicemembers, a lot of 'em).

Maybe the usual paradigm will be broken, and they'll just pick a bullshit pork program and do a nice hefty vertical slice....but they tend to prefer to pick around the edges, trimming here, cutting there.