Military spending cuts are, at least to me, something of a conundrum. While military spending is generally a waste of money in our present economic and political state any decrease in government spending may make the situation worse. There is little argument that our defense budget, at roughly $700 billion its over 6 times larger than the next highest spending country; China. We've already committed to $450 Billion in cuts however many argue it should be much more.
It does beg the interesting question of how to put a price on marginal increases in security. Is the reduction in spending cuts justified?
I feel it would be very difficult to measure the marginal increase in security, as security threats to homeland security usually arise abruptly and without warning. I would be interested to see how much revenue is raised through R&D of military equipment contracts with other nations and private investors and compare that number to the defense budget. I would assume the amount would be much smaller than the budget. The other interesting thing would be to see what military departments the government would cut funding to.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in seeing how much the increased spending over the last decade has actually deterred terrorism. Certainly that ratio probably can't be determined. Defense spending is always fought over more vigorously than other government budgets, and with good reason. I would take the stance that we should find other budgets to cut before we touch defense spending very much. If we can find savings in other areas and keep up national security I would be on board.
ReplyDeleteBy far the largest military objective of the US should be to repair its economy. Military power is ultimately dependent on economic power, which is rapidly slipping from our grasp. Paradoxically the way to make the US powerful again would be to vastly cut the military.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should not cut military spending. However, I think that a lot of Americans see the wars in the middle east as pointless wars. People don't understand why we are there and demand that we leave, when things really aren't that simple. But if we do cut spending it might appease some people but it would hurt our economy.
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