Will They Scale Back?

The United States still pays billions of dollars for overseas military bases. The Senate Armed Services Committee spent a year investigating the cost, burden-sharing and congressional oversight of permanent bases and found the U.S. spends $10 billion overall — 70 percent of that in Germany, Japan and South Korea. The report also identified inherent problems and missteps as U.S. facilities on foreign lands are returned to the host nations. The Pentagon is looking to scale back or close overseas and U.S. domestic bases in order to save money.