Budget Scuttlebutt: how far will Gates go in 2011?

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY - Secretary Robert Gates - Brief article

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Defense budget gloom-and-doom vibes are spreading inside the beltway. Secretary Robert Gates says to expect modest increases of no more than 2 percent in the coming years. But industry insiders worry that the 2011 budget--the first one that will truly bear the Obama administration's imprint--will be the beginning of a major downturn.

Pat Towell, a defense analyst at the Congressional Research Service, says one likely scenario is a budget that will preserve personnel accounts but head south in discretionary spending such as weapons development and procurement. When Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, he killed 13 programs, Towell says. "If you...