3 Reasons Conservatives Should Cut Defense Spending Now!

The Congressional Budget Office projects that if we keep spending the way we have been, federal debt held by the public will grow from around 60 percent of GDP to a whopping 82 percent of GDP over the next decade, with no end in sight. That's the sort of borrowing that can ruin a country's economy.

Conservative Republicans are happy to talk about cutting spending on the poor, education, and cowboy poetry readings, but they insist that spending on defense and homeland security be increased.

Given that spending on defense and homeland security accounts for a whopping 20 percent of the government's budget, that's a non-starter. As with every other legitimate function of government, we need to squeeze spending down to the lowest level possible that still gets the job done.

Here are three reasons conservatives -- and all other red-blooded Americans -- should cut defense spending now.

1. War is Over! Didn't we just win -- or at least end -- the war in Iraq? And aren't we winding down in Afghanistan? After World War II, Vietnam, and the end of the Cold War, military spending got cut, as it should have been.

More to the point, spending on the military and homeland security grew by 90 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars since 2000. If al Qaeda and most international terrorists groups have been largely vanquished, we should not just be bringing the troops home, but dollars too.

Unless, that is, conservatives want to seriously argue that nearly doubling outlays for the past decade haven't yielded results that would allow us to dial down defense spending.

2. What price safety? The United States already accounts for about 45 percent of the planet's military outlays -- more than the next 14 countries combined. Most of those countries are our allies as well, so we should be able to stay safe while reducing our military spending.

It's a conservative truism that government programs, even ones that are sanctioned by the constitution, tend to be bloated, inefficient, and incompetent. Surely that same logic applies to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, Republican Reps. John Mica and Paul Broun marked the 10th anniversary of the Transportation Security Administration with a report that concluded that after spending $56 billion in security measures, flying is no safer now than it was before the 9/11 attacks.

If conservatives can't find wasteful spending and useless programs in defense and homeland security to cut, they've got bigger problems than terrorists to deal with.

3. Attacking the Military-Industrial Complex is a Republican Virtue -- And Good Politics. It was a Republican president -- the war hero Dwight Eisenhower -- who sounded the alarm about the military-industrial complex's insidious ability to grow and grow like a cancer on the American body politic. And right now, it's Democrats such as Defense Secretary Leon Panentta leading the cry for a blank check despite admitting that there are tons of duplicative programs in his department.

In his proposed 2011 budget, President Barack Obama actually calls for bigger spending on defense and homeland security than the Republicans do. Obama's recent announcement that he may trim some planned increases over the next decade doesn't change that.

Americans are rightly tired not just of dubious, inconclusive wars that have led to the death of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of others. A growing number of us are tired of out-of-control spending by a Washington elite that is totally out of touch with everyday Americans.

If conservatives want to push forward on reducing spending on Medicaid and other domestic programs, they should show that they take their own limited government philosophy seriously by pushing for defense cuts between now and the 2012 elections.

About 3 minutes long.

Photo Credit: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo

[Jaycephus]

I vote Republican, & I approve this REASONable message!

[Tigerfire]

We don't need to have the government funding education. Education has gone down hill since government got into it.

War on Poverty hasn't been won. Actually more people have become poor because of it not inspite of it.

Cut entitlement programs they don't truely help people.

[erwinbrown]

we need to cut our government and get some people who care for our beloved u.s. of a

[voodoolife]

Not a fan of cutting the military. But, I am a fan of shutting down bases in other countries that don't pay us to protect them. I personally think it's gone on far to long. It may be a drop in the bucket as far as overall spending, but those resources could be used in other areas of the military and defense. Especially our veterans who get less attention from our government than immigrants with 12 kids draining the system... I know, I'm a racist, bigot, insert whatever term you want (does not stick to me). I just want our own, especially those that serve, taken care of first...

[lb]

Thank u! Ron Paul 2012! The only candidate willing to do all 3 and then some!

[CurtHowland]

@kwoffy I talked to a man who came out of the NH primary, who said almost the same thing, except that he was a navy vet who had done his time in boomers and thought more like 6 stationed all over the world.
He said he liked the first Roosevelt's "Speak softly but carry a big stick". I said, "there is no stick bigger than an ICBM".

[httm]

@HuxleyWasRight i stand by bernie sanders in not touching social security medicare or medicaid. bernie is a hero to vermont and america as a whole

[gman]

I was at the pentagon from 2001-2003 and saw the military budget EXPLODE, and has not made any real retreat since.  There is so much unneeded spending now that we are winding down in two theater conflicts.  Look at the level of military spending pre-9/11 and use that as a good starting point of where we should be.

[bsmithgates]

What we really need is a total shake up of the two party system. They are both so entrenched and so beholding to special interest and their own party platforms, that the U.S. citizenry is all but forgotten. Remember this. We have the final say, all it takes is courage to stand up for the individual and the collective good will prevail.

[Yepprd]

While working for the National Taxpayers Legal Fund, Dina Rasor led its investigation into the C-5A transport aircraft. In February 1981 Rasor started "Project on Military Procurement", as an arm of the Fund.[2] The organization was intended as a watchdog group to perform oversight of the military. Early interests included the M1 Abrams tank.[3] The Project first gained wide attention in the mid-1980s uncovering Pentagon waste and fraud by publishing reports, [when?] provided by whistleblowers

[squirreljester]

As debt holders, can't we, as citizens of the US, just call our debts in on the Government?

[successfulbuild]

If conservatives really believed in the market they would advocate privatizing the military and let the market provide for defense if China or another country invades. The fact is militaristic foreign policy affects nearly every sector of the economy, distorting the so-called free-market. And the issue is whether US foreign policy does more bad than good. Even many realists (Mearsheimer, Morganthau, Bacevich) have been critical of US capitalist aggression/American Empire for its dismal failures.

[TheBloderx]

Defense spending keeps us safe. But spending on wars and illegal attacks are what make us unsafe.

[RSG]

The UK Conservative party Austerity measures included
Military spending as well !

[RageCreatin]

Military spending is alot like Education spending. It allows for better resourses to get the job done.

[successfulbuild]

Compare Romney victory speech full of militarism (we must dominate the world) with:
"The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government.... We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, our resources and livelihood all are involved; so is the very structure of our society.

[centralnyguy]

Social programs account for 2/3 of our budget, Military spending not even 1/3, why is it odd to reason TV that the GOP want's to go after the largest, most exploding part of the budget, while leaving the Defense portion alone during these uncertain, tumultuous times overseas ?

[Native]

This would be great! We would be able to have a better health care system, free higher or cheaper higher education and have other better badly needed social programs to help the poor and elderly. We don't need to be the world's police. We need to take care of our own first.

[AlaskaFinal]

The point of the matter is, in the aviation system today, a 9/11-like attack is impossible.

Any perpetrator would need far more resources and far better understanding of our security to pull it off.

[MrSecondgrade]

I support bringing them home!! Not sending them to another bs war for Ellites to make more money off. Bring them home and let them work here not in a base in a Country that poses no threat.