short and worth reading, I think. ending:
"The debt deal kicks the defense budget can down the road for this and future Congresses. People should not read precision and certainty into a political deal specifically designed to be uncertain and indistinct.
linked to from this overview:
How Much Does the Debt Deal Really Cut Military Spending?
For liberals anxious to defend social programs, one consolation in an otherwise lousy debt deal was the early reports that the initial cuts of $1 trillion would include $350 billion in defense spending. See, for example, Nate Silver in the New York Times and Ezra Klein in the Washington Post. But it looks to me like that $350 billion figure is far from certain, and based on an assumption that isn't necessarily warranted. The figure appears to come from this White House fact sheet released Sunday night. Initial reports like this one also described the first tranche of cuts as being evenly divided between "security" and "non-security" spending. (My understanding, to drill down even further, is that the actual "security" figure is $420 billion, of which $350 is defense spending, since "security" is also understood to encompass intelligence, State Department, and veterans benefits.)
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