Obama signs $680bn for next yr defence budget, $170bn signed for Iraq and Afghan war

Defence budget of $ 680 billion was signed by the US president Barack Obama for the next years financial budget. The 2010 defense authorization bill was signed by Obama on Wednesday which he says has cut down several useless expensive projects.

But the President has signed 170 billion dollars for the funding of Iraq and Afghanistan war in that bill. At the signing ceremony Obama said “I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure”.

Also seen in the ceremony were the country’s vice-president, Joe Biden and the US defense secretary, Robert Gates. Obama addressed the ceremony “I think wasting these dollars makes us less secure. That is why we have passed a defense bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense process; reforms that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars”.

In the bill funding has been cut to various defense contracts that have cost heavy prices and delayed every process. The Future Combat systems, the US army’s main modernization plan and the air borne Laser, missile defense system of Boing 747-400 aircraft has been considered useless-costly and has been terminated from the bill. Lockheed-Martin VH-71 presidential helicopter has also been removed in this bill.

Obama has pressurized on the crimes such as criminal acts based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Obama said “After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are”.

The hate crimes law has been sought by civil rights and the gay rights groups, but the conservatives still oppose this saying that it would pack up those who oppose homosexuality on the basis of religion and philosophy.

The measure is being named after a Wyoming college student, Matthew Shepard who was killed 11 years ago.