The defense spending “debate” seems to be devolving into a race to the bottom. With trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see—and a collision with the debt ceiling scheduled in less than two weeks—panicky politicians are coalescing around a simple yet dangerous idea: doubling-down—perhaps even tripling-down—on already severed military spending cuts.
This week, President Obama made his priorities clear: social spending trumps national security. “A lot of the spending cuts that we’re making should be around areas like defense spending as opposed to food stamps,” he told NPR.
Ironically, no domestic program can exist or operate if the nation is not protected.
Yet clearly the president views the defense budget as a piggy bank to be raided for other purposes. And if you thought “other purposes” means debt reduction, think again.
Earlier this month during his Twitter town hall, the president observed that “the nice thing about the defense budget is it’s so big … that you can make relatively modest changes to defense that end up giving you a lot of head room to fund things like basic research or student loans or things like that.”
Very few politicians want to fund a strong defense … until they need it. But you cannot maintain a military with global reach through boom and bust funding cycles. Any money you “save” during the bust is spent when budgets go up again due to rising threats and challenges.
Thankfully, some members of Congress are still trying to hold the line and ensure no defense cuts are made without careful discussion of threats around the world and risks toAmerica’s security.
Nearly 50 members of Congress, including the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, reminded the president this week:
“We are a nation at war with men and women fighting in harm’s way on multiple fronts. We need to ensure that the soldiers of this nation are well equipped with every resource they need to protect the liberties we all enjoy.”
They went on to say that national resolve starts at the top:
“We need to send a clear message to the men and women fighting for our nation that this Congress will not sit by while your Administration makes unjustified decisions about defense funding.”
Unfortunately, our commander-in-chief seems more interested in playing student-lending-in chief.
