Jim Talent: Don't Cut Military Spending (Defense is an obligation, not an option)

Nationa Review ^ | 11/04/2010 | Jim Talent

[huldah1776]

If you cut defense spending, we get behind our enemies who already know we are going down the tubes economically.

If we cut defense spending, it will be the active soldiers, sailors and Marines who will take the cut, not anyone else. They already do without. They need new transport planes, better intel, and our enemies need to know we will not be backing down on our defense.

The airlines make “free” citizens go through those screening machines and there are vans with the same technology driving on our streets looking into our homes. Something seems wrong here.

I know I am not up on what really goes on with military spending but I just think defense cuts should be last on the list. Maybe redistribution, but not cuts.

And I am concerned about it with my kid having enlisted. :)

[Frantzie]

Reality is a bi*ch. Deal with it.

[kabar]

Where is the money going to come from? More borrowing? We can't afford what we have now. The entitlement programs and our debt servicing costs, which are around $400 billion counting the interest on the entitlement program trust funds, consume all of our tax revenue. Everthing else is borrowed including funds for defense and every other function of government.

The national debt is the single biggest threat to national security, according to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Tax payers will be paying around $600 billion in interest on the national debt by 2012, the chairman told students and local leaders in Detroit.

“That’s one year’s worth of defense budget,” he said, adding that the Pentagon needs to cut back on spending. “We’re going to have to do that if it’s going to survive at all,” Mullen said, “and do it in a way that is predictable.”

[paterfamilias]

Great points.

[JimRed]

Don’t cut the military budget, but redirect it to the most productive uses where necessary.

[lurk]

We can let Europe defend themselves, and reduce our presence there.

We can close unnecessary bases around the world.

And there are defense contractors all across the country making stuff for the military that Congress ordered but the military didn’t ask for(a bunch of new C-130 planes out of Georgia, for instance).

It should save a few Grand to sell off Nancy’s 757 for starters.

I’ve got a brother in law who works for a defense contractor. Listening to him, there are DEFINITELY ways to cut the military budget.

[olezip]

Reducing defense spending now would be a dangerous mistake.

I agree, but so much DoD money has been diverted within the DoD for failed or ineffective socialist experiments. Identifying and re-directing those useless, counter-productive programs would enhance the effectiveness of our military without increasing the budget.

[Tennessean4Bush]

Cut waste everywhere. Period. No sacred cows.

[Carley]

It’s time for zero based budgeting and that includes the Pentagon.

[Steamburg]

This must have been a reflex reaction on his part or does he get residuals?...

Jim Talent, now a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, served on both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees during his years in Congress.

[ASOC]

Like this one?

Or this one?

Or this one?

Less about Defense than pork in too many cases.