In the News

Budget Lessons of Osama bin Laden

Lawrence Korb, Laura Conley, and Alex Rothman examine what the bin Laden operation may mean for the U.S. defense budget.

The latest defense headlines understandably are dominated by the details of Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs. And while policymakers are beginning to draw lessons from that raid for U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, they should not overlook its implications for a topic much closer to home — the defense budget.

With at least some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in agreement that defense spending must be part of U.S. deficit reduction efforts, the bin Laden operation could be the trigger needed to galvanize action on sensible spending reductions.

The above excerpt was originally published in Politico. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Lawrence J. Korb

Former Senior Fellow

Alex Rothman

Policy Analyst