Believe me. If we could cleanly cut just those programs, I would do a dance. Unfortunately, our "brilliant" GOP signed off on this Faustian bargain known as the "2011 Budget Control Act" that punished Defense to a much greater degree. Paul Ryan and John Boehner could have said "no" to the formula. As it stands, the DoD takes 50% of the cuts, yet it is 17% of the budget. Worse still, almost all entitlement spending was completely exempt, and still is.
Defense is a Constitutional enterprise. You and I are smart enough to know that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Housing and Urban Development, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Section 8 Housing, and every other Federal giveaway program is not Constitutional.
But here we are. Facing this massive problem, with 3 weeks to go.
The Republicans can't just stand by and watch at least 1 million jobs (some projections are actually for 2 million jobs) disappear and Defense get gutted and declare "victory." Someone needs to wake the GOP up.