The Obama administration asked the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2010 by $55 billion, more than 10 percent of last year's $512 billion defense budget.

The announcement came late Friday, following a meeting at the White House between President Obama and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. Jim Jones, chairman of the National Security Council, according to a Fox News report.

The White House website appears to have no published notice of the Obama directive, nor was there any explanation from the White House how the proposed cuts might affect our military in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The proposed cuts in the military budget come as the Obama administration's $825 billion economic stimulus plan goes to the Senate after passing the House last week without a single Republican vote.

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In contrast, Obama's economic stimulus plan has $314 billion allocated to favorite Democratic Party social welfare program and political causes, according to a list prepared by the Director Blue blog:

• $83 billion in welfare payments (the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax)


• $81 billion for Medicaid


• $86 billion on education, more than the entire Department of Education required just ten years ago


• $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits


• $20 billion for food stamps


• $8 billion on renewable energy projects


• $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities


• $6 billion on urban transit systems


• $2 billion for child-care subsidies


• $1 billion for Amtrak


• $650 million for digital TV conversion coupons


• $600 million on new cars for government


• $400 million for global-warming research


• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

In a campaign video viewed over half a million times on YouTube.com, Democratic presidential candidate Obama vowed to cut military spending if he were elected president.

"I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending," Obama says on the video. "I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems and I will institute an independent defense priorities board to insure that the quadrennial defense review is not used to justify unnecessary spending."

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