Top 10 Reasons to NOT Put Defense Spending ‘On the Table’

James Carafano / December 01, 2010

Getting America’s fiscal house in order ought to be a priority, but it should not come at the expense of protecting the American people. Here are 10 reasons why gutting defense is wrong.

#10. We are a nation at war. Even the White House acknowledges that the U.S. will be conducting operations in Afghanistan through 2014 and that America will remain engaged in Iraq as well. Cutting defense would mean that wars would be funded by robbing resources from readiness, training, and buying new equipment. Our troops would suffer.

#9. The Pentagon’s bill is getting bigger, not smaller. Congress has under-funded buying new equipment by about on average $50 billion a year for over a decade. Every year our men and women in uniform deploy with older and less equipment—planes older than their pilots, the smallest navy since 1916. Cutting the budget means our military would go hollow. Simply calling to cut “Cold War” systems we don’t need won’t cut it. Our troops need something—not nothing. They can’t fight without ships, planes, and vehicles. (more…)