Nation : Military Base Closure Plan Rapped

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress testified today that a federal commission’s sweeping plan to close 86 military bases and partly close five more fails to meet the cost-effective goals the panel had set.

Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) said that according to her estimates, plans to close the Presidio in San Francisco “will cost the taxpayer $26 million more per year to maintain Presidio Park and the 6th Army at Ft. Carson (in Colorado) and to provide health care to military retirees in San Francisco than it does now. Closure hurts, rather than helps, our efforts to cut the deficit.”