Analysis: Marine '08 budget short

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. Marine Corps will plead for an additional $4 billion in its fiscal year 2008 budget but has been rebuffed so far behind the scenes, a Marine Corps official said Thursday.

"We'll comply with our fiscal guidance, but don't ask me to tell you that $19 billion is good enough," a Marine Corps official told United Press International.

While the U.S. Army has been unusually vocal and specific in discussing its 2008 budget crisis -- it says it needs about $22 billion more than the $114 billion it was originally slated to get next year -- the Marine Corps has not until now made its needs known publicly.

The Marine Corps -- at 181,000 people, by far the smallest branch of the military, and one that prides itself on doing things on a shoestring -- is preparing to make its arguments public and on the record in the next few weeks, he said.

Read the rest at UPI

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