Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is considering drastic cuts in military spending, including slashing retirement benefits and a round of base closings. Panetta has been ordered to cut more than $450 billion of the Pentagon budget over the next decade and has been under intense political pressure to make the cuts. The yearly defense budget has doubled since the 9/11 attacks. Panetta said it is possible to reshape the military in order to reduce the budget while still defending national interests. Elisabeth Bumiller, Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times, and Larry Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan Administration, analyze what these cuts will mean for the Defense Department.
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