Where are the deficit hawks who want to trim defense spending?
WASHINGTON — Kentucky Republican Rand Paul is an eccentric candidate, but he has a couple of good ideas. One of them is this: Defense spending is not sacrosanct, and the military’s budget should be cut.
If Paul holds onto to that idea, it may well be worthwhile to watch him campaign for the U.S. Senate. There are very few Republicans (Paul’s father, the libertarian-leaning GOP Congressman from Texas, is among the few) who want to cut the Pentagon’s budget.
Quite frankly, there aren’t enough Democrats who stand against the military-industrial complex, either. Just last week, the House passed a defense spending bill that includes $485 million to develop a jet fighter engine that the Pentagon doesn’t even want. While supporters of a second engine model for the F-35 claim it would increase competition among defense contractors, the only thing likely to increase is the cost.
Nearly fifty years after Dwight Eisenhower famously warned Americans about the military-industrial complex, it still manages to hold its few critics at bay, to thwart the designs of budget-cutters and to exert a peculiar pull on the American popular imagination. Budget-busting weapons programs and $600 toilet seats simply don’t incite the wrath of voters in the same way as an unmarried mother buying groceries with food stamps.
In fiscal year 2009, according to the Office of Management and Budget, defense spending accounted for 23 percent of the federal budget, more than Medicare/Medicaid (19 percent), more than Social Security (20 percent) and more than the hated bank bail-out (four percent.) Any serious effort to address the deficit, then, will have to include the Pentagon. (See the chart below.)
But the Pentagon usually gets a pass — drawing steady criticism only from the fringe on the right (the Pauls) and the left (U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.) Americans have bought into the false idea that the military needs super-sophisticated, hyper-expensive technology to keep us safe from the enemy — even if the enemy is using civilian airliners and crudely-made car bombs. The war against al-Qaeda and its ally, the Taliban, is currently being waged largely with ground troops and Predator drones, which are manufactured at a tiny fraction of the cost of stealth fighter jets.
Still, the U.S. spends nearly as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. (See second chart at bottom.) The spending continues unabated partly because defense contractors have done a masterful job of turning weapons-production into a massive jobs program spread across several Congressional districts.
In a deep recession, with unemployment still hovering near ten percent, a federally-sponsored, taxpayer-funded jobs program isn’t a bad idea. But taxpayers reject the notion of a modern Works Progress Administration (WPA)— unless it’s run by Boeing or Lockheed Martin.
When Congress was trying to save the F-22, manufactured by Lockheed and assembled in Marietta, Ga., supporters didn’t even try to hide their job-related motives. As U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “The F-22 has played a great role in Cobb. It has meant a lot to families and to the local economy. I hate to see something that people have spent their career working on just fade away when we still feel that we need more of those planes.”
But Obama and Gates didn’t believe the Pentagon needed more of those planes, which they considered a Cold War relic, so the F-22 was finally killed despite a massive lobbying effort. Still, Georgia’s Republican senators, Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, were able to get millions in defense-related earmarks for the state added to defense appropriations.
The Department of Defense budget for fiscal year 2010, passed last October, came to a whopping $680 billion, $16 billion more than Obama requested. The House defense bill voted on last week totaled $726 billion. That’s insane — and unsustainable.
If fiscal conservatives are serious about reining in spending, the Pentagon presents a fat juicy target. Paint a bull’s-eye on that defense budget.
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246 comments Add your comment
I'm here from the government and I'm here to help
June 2nd, 2010
10:18 am
Cut the entire Federal budget. Careful on D.
…and btw, what size burka do you wear?
Gator Joe
June 2nd, 2010
10:18 am
Cynthia,
You and Granny Godzilla are terrific!
The most important factor in our defense are the service men and women. Yes, go after unnecessary programs, the waste, and the outright fraud in defense spending and there should be more than enough to ensure the well being of our service personel. Then fully fund education which will provide the designers of future, effecient weapons systems and the service personel to operate them. Finally, if government spending is to be “wasted” I would rather it go to single moms and their children.
ck hall
June 2nd, 2010
10:18 am
How about Congressional cuts in spending?
ctucker
June 2nd, 2010
10:18 am
Jose, Why wouldn’t defense be among the first places to cut? It’s one of the biggest expenditures.
NRB2
June 2nd, 2010
10:18 am
Defense is one of the few legit functions of our government.
If we ever fall behind in that area, we’re doomed.
How about we cut out ALL wefare, ALL social security, ALL medicaid, foreign aid, and then cut government worker pay IN HALF, then finally ELIMINATE ALL PENSIONS FOR WORTHLESS GOVERNMENT “WORKERS”.
To top it off, we must cap how big government can get and institute a FLAT TAX.
If government can’t survive on stealing only 10% of our money, then we cut even more until they can survive on 10%.
Problem solved.
ctucker
June 2nd, 2010
10:18 am
hdhd, I agree with you about entitlement reform
ken R
June 2nd, 2010
10:19 am
While I agree that we need cuts in Military spending we also need cuts across all in Gov’t. We don’t need the size gov’t. that we have, most of them are parasites.
Please don’t forget that we also seem to feel that we need to protect half of the World, this is one reason for the humongus budget.
NRB2
June 2nd, 2010
10:20 am
“Why wouldn’t defense be among the first places to cut? It’s one of the biggest expenditures”
——————————————–
Because the rest of planet earth wants us dead. Even more so since Barry O. was “elected”.
willbrad
June 2nd, 2010
10:22 am
Granny….I wholeheartedly agree. However, being a fairly regular reader of your posts I get the feeling my definition of “genuinely needy” and yours may differ slightly. But hey….at least we found some common ground
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
10:23 am
Tuck, money had nothing to do with 9/11 so don’t go down that road. It was political correct thinking on monitoring terrorists and nothing to do with spending on defense. And that p/c thinking goes back to both Clinton and Bush Sr. And hey, leave the fake Tuck alone, she makes good points.
riff
June 2nd, 2010
10:27 am
9/11 was due to Bill Clinton’s spineless campaign in Mogadishu, as Bin Laden said himself.
zeke
June 2nd, 2010
10:27 am
Yes we can cut the federal budget! Social security, medicare/medicaid and discretionary spending account for 52% of the budget! CUT THEM! Mandatory spending accounts for over 17%! CUT IT! The only major Constitutional job of the fed’l government IS DEFENSE! RAISE SPENDING ON IT AND CUT ALL THE OTHER L;IBERAL SOCIALIST BULL S@$T! Better yet, CUT LIBERAL MORONS LIKE CYNTHIA!
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
10:28 am
Good point riff. Good thing Obama is getting tough with those countries that want us dead. We can all rest easy at night. I sure hope people know sarcasm when they read it.
Kamchak
June 2nd, 2010
10:29 am
zeke—-dude, decaf. Just sayin’
xyz
June 2nd, 2010
10:29 am
the only area in government that spending makes sense is in DEFENSE. We can do without all the liberal entitlement programs that have destroyed Europe, and we can do without 90% of the departments and agencies whose main priorities today seem to be just to employ people for the sake of giving them a job. A pointless job at that.
Goober Pyle
June 2nd, 2010
10:30 am
“To the fake Cynthia Tucker: You may not use my name to post your comments. This is your last warning.”
Kind of redundant – don’t you think?
Granny Godzilla
June 2nd, 2010
10:33 am
willbrad
i don’t think our definition of genuinely needy would be that different.
our estimates on the % of lazy lugheads gaming the system probably does.
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
10:38 am
Anyone on hear yesterday the Canada is considering an over haul of their healthcare system? Seems it is going broke and is to conviluted. Oh joy, our future is looking so good.
neo-Carlinist
June 2nd, 2010
10:38 am
riff & Jose, as y dad used to say; “if B.S. were snow, you’d be a blizzard.” papa Bush got us into Mogadishu (humanitarian effort – no exit plan, just before he tossed the keys to Clinton). also, 9/11 is a PERFECT example of how “defense spending” does not ensure a sound “defense”. you really need to “go down the road” of Andrew Bacevich and read The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War). The DoD/Intelligence infrastructure FAILED. and it failed because it is just as bloated and inefficient at the Department of Education, Social Security, or any other government enterprise – and this is a bipartisan effort.
Swede Atlanta
June 2nd, 2010
10:38 am
Kevin, you can cut defense spending without risking protecting the homeland or helping Israel defend herself from the bad Arabs and Persians. We don’t need billion dollar weapons systems to prosecute the war in Afghanistan.
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
10:43 am
Hey neo, pull your cranium out of your buttocks and look at my post. I said BUSH and Redneck. You guys are so quick to blame any Bush you don’t bother to read the entire message. Consider this a verbal slap upside your weak mind.
Fang1944
June 2nd, 2010
10:46 am
According to one source US defense spending may be MORE than the rest of the world combined.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm
riff
June 2nd, 2010
10:47 am
neo-Communist,
Hmmm….it was Clinton that was in Mogadishu, Einstein. I realize facts and realities pain Commies like yourself, but sorry, it is what it is.
Also, Clinton had already cut our military budget in HALF before he left office, not to mention like a lunatic he put a wall in between the CIA and FBI. Instead of allowing them to work together, he made them competitors. Yet another thing Clinton did to contribute to 9/11.
Swede Atlanta
June 2nd, 2010
10:47 am
XYZ, how did these programs “destroy” Europe? Clearly there are outlandish excesses to some of the programs as seen in Greece. But many of the countries who have strong and stable economies (considering the global recession we are just now exiting) have very robust programs that benefit people such as healthcare and retirement.
I can’t find the reference quickly but there are a number of surveys that are done annually to gauge the overall level of happiness of people in various countries of the world. Additionally surveys are done of countries where people would most want to live.
People are happiest (based on a variety of factors including access to healthcare, clean water, vacation and leisure time, public safety, etc.) are in those very democracies in Western Europe. Scandinavia ranks very high despite the high taxes. And the country voted as the most desirable to live in is France, not the USA.
Europe can afford to provide high quality, accessible healthcare for all its citizens, provide robust maternity and paternity leaves, provide for minimum 6 weeks of vacation time, reasonable unemployment benefits (U.S. benefits are a joke) and good retirement because they don’t waste money on expensive weapons systems.
aj
June 2nd, 2010
10:47 am
How about we cut out the welfare/medicaid program all together? It’s a broken system that only enables deadbeats to continue milking the taxpayers. They do a great job of “teaching” this way of life to their eight children for them to do the same as they grow up. I’ve had it up to here with you moochers, liars, and thieves! Get off your @$$ and get a job!
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
10:52 am
aj, we can not cut these programs you speak about. The dems need them to enslave people and keep their voter base entact. Roosevelt said people would be dependent on the dems with these type of social programs and he was right. Now look at what Obama and the gang are doing today. Pretty amazing, huh?
Jack
June 2nd, 2010
10:56 am
Trim defense, raise taxes and welfare. Way to go.
Granny Godzilla
June 2nd, 2010
10:59 am
I’m so busy enslaving the poor to keep the democratic base strong, I’ll think I’ll have to skip lunch.
Damn, and I packed homemade eggsalad on white.
Enslavement just tuckers me out.
ctucker
June 2nd, 2010
11:01 am
aj, How much money do you think that would save?
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
11:01 am
First step towards recovery is admitting your problem granny. come on girl, you can do it.
ctucker
June 2nd, 2010
11:02 am
Jose, I’m sure she/he can make the same points using another name. His/her own, preferably
ctucker
June 2nd, 2010
11:03 am
Gator Joe, I agree wholeheartedly
Granny Godzilla
June 2nd, 2010
11:06 am
Hose
Did you manage to come up with whatever it was that you thought I said or did that deserved your “hood” comment – or are you just another puff piece with a revolving name?
ctucka
June 2nd, 2010
11:06 am
“You may not use my name to post your comments. This is your last warning. ”
Oh no! Run away. A warning!
A bit oversensitive are we……?
xyz
June 2nd, 2010
11:09 am
Swede Atlanta,
If you need surveys to make your argument then this discussion is over before it’s started. And no, actually those countries cannot afford the things you mentioned, hence why they are growing more broke with each passing second. Why on earth do you think the E.U. is making Greece PRIVATIZE their healthcare system if they proceed with bailing them out? Hmmm…..gee, I wonder…..
They are broke because they cannot afford their “free” healthcare. They cannot sustain having 2 months of paid vacation, retirement age at 50, unions galore, etc.
The recipe for their demise is spelled out in Socialist/Marxist agendas just like Obama’s.
Educate yourself and come back when you can make an adult argument besides needing to rely on bogus “happiness” surveys.
hahahaha!!!
June 2nd, 2010
11:09 am
Hey granny, do you have anymore Daily Kos talking points to copy and paste for us today? LOL!!
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 2nd, 2010
11:10 am
Good morning all. There are perhaps some areas of waste in the defense spending; but it would be gross negligence for us to fail to note that Congressmen, mostly of limited cognitive capacity, have been known to cut needed muscle from defense to preserve fat elsewhere.
Rather than even contemplate cutting anything in defense, during a time of war, it would make a lot more sense for our deficit hawks to focus on such avenues of total waste as
the Department of Agriculture (grows no food)
the Department of Energy (produces no energy)
the Department of Education (teaches nobody, teaches nothing)
the Department of Housing and Urban Development (the most egregious form of corporate welfare proffered by the central government)
the SEC (most effective in locking the barn door after the horses escape, but also effectively inhibits economic innovation and growth)
the FDA (kills more Americans every year than all terrorists combined)
FNMA and FHLMC (now the largest taxpayer bailout in history, and a totally unnecessary one)
the US contribution to the United Nations (is there anyone left who sees anything remotely resembling value there?)
After we abolish the totally worthless programs that do nothing but waste money, then deficit hawks might be well advised to look at useful entities, perhaps to seek $100 hammers dancing on the head of a pin.
Granny Godzilla
June 2nd, 2010
11:10 am
hahaha
i recommend the great orange satan to all you LIV’s
now now!!!
June 2nd, 2010
11:11 am
CT,
You know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!!!
The Great Unbannable Posting Machine
June 2nd, 2010
11:11 am
Jose, I’m sure she/he can make the same points using another name. His/her own, preferably”
That’s an option, to be used or not used as desired.
Chris
June 2nd, 2010
11:11 am
Cut stimulus, bailout and foreign aid and relief spending, not defense spending.
hahahaha!!!
June 2nd, 2010
11:12 am
Granny is so smart, she doesn’t even have to think!!! She lets Daily Kos do it for her!!! That was so embarrassing for you yesterday Granny. Getting busted plagiarizing Bin Laden’s favorite website!!
tsk, tsk!!!!!
Swede Atlanta
June 2nd, 2010
11:13 am
AJ, you may have enjoyed a life free from tragedy. Your comments about public assistance and medicaid confirm that you have limited understanding of the community of your fellow citizens that rely on some or all of these services.
I have a 57 year old cousin who was crippled in an automobile accident at no fault of his own. He got a settlement but that money was consumed in the first several years of his incapacity.
He is receiving SS disability to pay for his basic monthly expenses and is on Medicaid. He has no other choices.
He is hardly part of a welfare dynasty. I for one believe, as Christ taught us, to care for the leaast among us.
Average Internet User
June 2nd, 2010
11:14 am
“After we abolish the totally worthless programs that do nothing but waste money”
Kind of like this “blog”?
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
11:16 am
Sorry granny, yeah I base it on comments you have made on Tuck’s blogs before. You are quick to play the race card when you feel it is necessary to debate a point. You are so far left and a racial divider that it is not funny. You see color while I see the person. Racists come in all colors not just lily white.
neo-Carlinist
June 2nd, 2010
11:18 am
jose, excuse me for combining my response – but consider this my counter-slap; I clearly stated DoD waste is a bi-partisan effort. as for riff, I take back my advice that you read anything by Andrew Bacevich. it is obvious you cannot read. one of the final acts of the Bush 41 administration in late 1992, was sending U.S. troops to Somalia to “protect” UN peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers. It was called Operation Restore Hope. were you capable of reading and more importantly COMPREHENDING words, you would know that Clinton was elected in 1992, but sworn in in 1993. The infamous Battle of Mogadishu (chronicaled in Blackhawk Down) occurrend in the Fall of 1993. OH, and of all people, I am stunned you believe anything from bin Laden’s mouth. the 9/11 attacks were due to the U.S. presence in the Middle East and what fundamentalist Muslims believe to be an infidel presence at Holy site (Saudi Arabia). given the Bush family’s (and oil interests) cozy relationship with the Saudi Royal Family, I think you’d better ‘give credit where credit is due’ about the true essence of al Qaeda and bin Laden (and let us no forget, he was recruited and trained by the Regan Adm CIA to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan).
Jose
June 2nd, 2010
11:20 am
Swede, the good book also says give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teah him how to fish and feed him for life. There are some people that need assistance due to extreme hardships, illnesses, and handicaps but, there are to many that could work and do not want to. We need to fix this now rather then later. Obamas entightlements are creating a lazy nation that already has to many lazy’s around.
xyz
June 2nd, 2010
11:21 am
Swede Atlanta,
Christ did not teach us to steal from others and pass your own burdens on to others. You and your family should be taking care of your cousin, not forcing strangers to.
Average Internet User
June 2nd, 2010
11:22 am
“I have a 57 year old cousin who was crippled in an automobile accident…”
That’s fine and all, but that’s not what we’re talking about. Your cousin’s case would represent one that is legitimate use of support.
We meant the “welfare babies”, living off of the backs of those of us who work very hard, not referring to those who are really in need.
I knew a few people in my life who were “disabled and couldn’t work” (cue violin music now).
Needless to say, they fought hard for disability with their excuses and enjoyed a lot of leisure time courtesy of the Alabama taxpayers. I dated a girl once who’s father had “a bad back” except for when he was working on his truck, taking a lovely cruise on his motorcycle, etc. while his wife supported the family.
On the other hand, I went to a technical college were there were two guys paralyzed from the neck down; yet they were enrolled in a school and attempting to do far more with their lives than the abled-bodied “disabled” people. Amazing! OOFF!
Byron Mathison Kerr
June 2nd, 2010
11:22 am
So the U.S. spends 48% of the whole world’s military budget?!!! That’s insane.
“When you have a hammer, you go looking for a nail.” — unknown