Out of the loop

I'll be out of the loop for about a week or so.  In the meantime, the big issue over the next week will be the Pentagon's ever-expanding budget.  Some good links with brief commentary:

• Nearly ten percent of the Pentagon's budget goes to Tricare, a US government-subsidized health care program which covers over nine million beneficiaries.  There's also been a marked increase in spending on social programs within the military in the last ten years.  Throw in bloated weapons programs and two wars which cost trillions of dollars, and you have a microcosm of the classic "guns vs. butter" debate within the military itself.  
• The current Pentagon budget is the largest since World War Two, a time when the US had nearly ten times the number of uniformed service members.  
• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has always advocated trimming the fat from the Pentagon budget.  It's hard to imagine someone disagreeing with Gates' common-sense approach to national security.  Once again, I completely underestimated Sarah Palin's vacuous drivel.