Can We Cut "Defense" Spending?

[lfairban]

Andrew Ferguson of the Weekly Standard summed up the neoconservative case against cutting U.S. defense spending in a February 21 article entitled “The Stockman Temptation.” In Ferguson’s article, he recollected that President Reagan’s Budget Director David Stockman had told Reagan back in the early 1980s that he must cut the defense budget in order to balance the budget. “Defense is not a budget issue,” Reagan responded. “You spend what you need.”

<snip>

Needed Spending?

The essential part of Reagan’s statement was the word “need.”

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/foreign-policy/6604-can-we-cut-qdefenseq-spending

The article also discusses the recommendations of the Paul-Frank commission for defense cuts in unnecessary spending.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Nothing our armed services currently do has anything to do with defense

Can we cut killing-the-world-to-prove-we-can-do-it spending?

[mike_c]

3. +10^10

[JuniperLea]

2. Reagan's astrologers and psychics kept him paranoid...

He wasted a ton of money on useless "technology" ... note the irony quotes.

[JanDutchy]

Of course you can: as soon as possible

Arms calls for Arms, Peace calls for Peace.

There is so much to invest in the prosperity in your country.


And the one's who put their feet between that goal, in contact we will change their minds.

[JanDutchy]

4. Of course you can: as soon as possible

Arms calls for Arms, Peace calls for Peace.

There is so much to invest in the prosperity in your country.


And the one's who put their feet between that goal, in contact we will change their minds.

[WatsonT]

5. It seems like we have to if we actually plan on getting the debt under control

no two ways about it.

[Kennah]

6. Don't know. Have something to do with where boom-boom made. Mongo only pawn in game of life.

[ThomCat]

7. If we could decimate the defense budget, and bring it down

to something resembling reality, we could save the entire rest of this country and restore it to real liberal values.

Head start, quality education, and subsidized higher Education
Health care
A public safety net
Repairing infrastructure
Job training
Affordable housing

It would all be within reach again. But right now, none of it is achievable because out government has decided that weapons and defense contractors are more important. :(

[BobbyBoring]

8. It's an offense budget

Not a defense budget and like everything else, it just channels our money to General Dynamics, Rand Corp, Halliburton, etc.

If we just cut the waste, we would be ahead of the game. Look at the Osprey. No branch wanted it due to it's propensity of crashing with out warning and killing people. Look at the SR21 Blackbird. Here's a plane that costs a states annual budget per copy that we don't need.

Once a country hits the point that it can destroy the world 5,000 times, it has enough!