Summary: Tea Party-backed lawmakers are not exempting the military’s multibillion-dollar budget from spending cuts in a time of war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the death of two U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan brought to at least 22 the number of American service members killed January 2010, compared with only 14 for the whole of January 2009. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, militants ambushed Pakistani security forces at checkpoints in two regions close to the Afghan border, sparking gunbattles that left 22 insurgents and two troops dead.