The problem, at the immediate one, is not government employee retirement packages, nor military spending, nor tax cuts. The problem is an out of control unearned "entitlements" programs. Military and civil servant pensions are earned benefits, part of what was promised to people when they signed on. Basically deferred compensation. The fact that Congress rather than funding those obligations, chose to buy votes with social programs is another thing entirely. The cuts in the defense budget are to pay for those social "entitlement" programs.
Still I do wish the administration would be honest with us and tell us that, and the Congress would move to end these "entitlement" programs that are not "entitlements", in the sense of something owned or earned, but just vote (and to some extent civil order) buying programs.
Middie does have a good point about the sad state of military readiness. The blame for that can be laid at the feet of Carter, Clinton and Democrat controlled shifting of military resources to social spending. Clinton wiped out the entire supply of 2500 lb ALCM stocks in Bosnia...and we still don't have our troops out of that mess. We actually removed nuclear warhead from 53 ALCMs and converted them to conventional at a cost of $80K each. We couldn't build more because Clinton sold the entire factories that manufacture the cruise missiles to communist China. He also allowed the ring magnet technology to be sold to them so now they can put a rocket into orbit instead of falling out of the sky midway...all for a little campaign cash. Clinton gave the whole United States a big Lewinsky.
I shouldn't give LBJ a pass either. He let Robert Strange Macnamara waste all our bomb stocks to plow the countryside of Viet Nam while never really using those assets to take out military targets. What a putz. The slimeball Ramsey Clark continues to spew his anti-American venom today. How does trash like that get to be Attorney General?