lawrence korb joins me to discuss the policies in libya in a few minutes, first, richard engel is in tripoli with the latest on the rebel forces' efforts to completely control that city. >> we are now in tripoli's green square, and it was in this square gadhafi promised to crush this rebellion, now the square is controlled by rebels, they have been coming in and out of here all day, celebrating their near-complete takeover of tripoli. it was a day of embraces, cheers -- >> gadhafi die! >> and, of course, celebratory gunfire. libyans this morning poured into tripoli to see what they thought was their fully-liberated city. >> the city is under the seize and control of rebels. >> rebels were greeted like heros, some kissed the ground in thanks. the outpouring of emotion wasn't only in tripoli. in benghazi, the rebel capital saved by rebel intervention, and misrata, a city nearly destroyed. >> my life starts now. >> libya is freed finally. >> nationwide, they tore moammar gadhafi's all-green flag and paraded the rebel's tri-colored banner. nearly all signs of state control here are gone.

the nation and this is a really important topic and joining me now to talk more about this is lawrence korb senior fellow at the center for american progress consequent thanks for being here you served as assistant secretary of defense under president reagan you know a great deal about this i want to get your take on what we heard today from secretary of defense panetta well the secretary of defense panetta is trying to basically keep the spirits up of the organization he took over but his former director of o.m.b. he knows that the defense budget now even if you control for placement is higher than at any time since the end of world war two it is a higher than it was at the height of the reagan buildup so yes we can afford to cut it but and then of course he's playing the family card well we've got to take care probability our family nobody's talking about doing any and anything anything like that those of us who work you know with the whole simpson deficit reduction commission and all the various other groups that work that looked at that show how you can do it without really hurting mili

off and said should come from medicare and social services instead of former pentagon official lawrence korb says america's defense bad mouth is in a drastic need of better management. well a search area to plans panetta is trying to basically keep the spirits up of the organization he took over but as former director of o.m.b. he knows that the french project now even if you control for inflation is higher than at any time since the end of world war two but i think the key thing to keep in mind is that when they talk about cuts up until now they talk about reducing the projected level of increases not cutting when you and i talk about the reason we're going to get less hour that we got last week you know in the differential program means we won't get as much as we thought it was still going to get more you know what when richard nixon left off which kerry called him soft on defense we were spending in today's dollars three hundred fifty billion two hundred three and watch the respondent what you need is good management and put out a lot of good you know get some people who can keep up with

a recent report by lawrence korb, who worked at the pentagon for ronald reagan, posits a $1 trillionithout compromising national security. the defense department is the best example of waste, fraud and abuse by far in the american government. even when the results are pretty impressive, the costs and the cost overruns are eye-popping. take a look at these f-35 planes. they can take off the traditional way as well as vertical. but the joint strike fighter program that commissioned the jets to service the air force, marines and the navy, has been plagued by years of design flaws and massive cost overruns. the total cost for this fighter program is something like $300 billion and counting. robert gates has called the new designs for the second engine extravagant and unnecessary. that could be said of large swaths of the defense budget, extravagant and unnecessary. budgetary measures aside, this is perhaps a chance to rebalance foreign policy. for too long congress has fattened the defense department while starving foreign policy agencies. robert gates himself once pointed out there are