The Nation - News from May 11, 1989

The Pentagon overestimated its spending plans by $2 trillion from 1982 through 1994, throwing its weapon- and troop-planning efforts into disarray and threatening the military with far more sweeping future reductions than now anticipated, the General Accounting Office reported. The Pentagon may be forced to slash about $150 billion in planned spending for weapons programs and troops over the next four years because of unrealistic Administration budget figures, officials of the congressional investigative agency told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “When you get that far off with planning, you’re now having to make decisions which are pretty dramatic,” Comptroller General Charles A. Bowsher told the Senate Armed Services Committee.