Republicans are dead set against cuts to defense spending as a way to balance the budget. The claim is that we will be less safe. The reality is defense spending is a huge industry in many red states and this spending becomes pork that they can bring home to their district under the guise of National Security. I'm at a loss as to why government spending on defense is OK but government spending on infrastructure (see the stimulus package) is evil. The analytical argument against the stimulus spending is how much it cost the government for each job created. Apparently these people have not looked into how much it costs to make one F-22 fighter jet ($125,000,000). This is not some great use of tax payer dollars.
While we already spend around 5 times as much on defense as the next largest spending country we are also spending more on defense than any time in our nations history void of WWII. After adjusting for inflation we spend over $200 billion more per year currently (a 33% increase) than during the Vietnam War, the Korean war, and the Cold War of the 1980's. Even if we cut the $200 billion in excess spending we would still have an advantage of 3 times as much spending as the next largest spending nation.
Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama has routinely asked for cuts only to be rebuffed by Republicans. We could make a significant dent in our National Debt but Republicans won't hear of it. This is Pork Barrel spending at its worst and true fiscally conservatives should be outraged.
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