Enough Pain to go Around

Sept. 28, 2006

Maj. Gen. Frank Faykes, a senior Air Force budget official, says that the Air Force was forced to levy the upcoming 40,000-person drawdown to pay to modernize weapon systems as DOD’s budget flattens. Faykes laid blame for Fiscal 2007 budget pressures on the deficit, the rising cost of entitlements, and the migration [of funds] to domestic accounts. He said that DOD took $4 billion from the Air Force to pay for non-defense items. Currently, Faykes said, the “big pain” is the soaring cost of fuel in the operations and maintenance account. USAF added $1.1 billion just to pay for aviation jet fuel in 2007.

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