GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, speaking Tuesday in Bluffton, S.C., called the impending budget cuts to be levied on the Pentagon under sequestration – paring back military spending to 2007 levels — “destructive” and “very dangerous to the survival of the country.”
The rhetoric on this topic bedevils chances of finding a way out. Defense spending is an element in the formula used to calculate acceptable levels of risk, and – amazingly — that’s a debate we yet to have. There’s no way the proposed cuts are going to threaten the nation’s survival, and it’s poppycock for the former speaker to say so. Then again, he did serve in the House alongside now-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who’s also given to excessive rhetoric on the topic, for nearly 15 years. Now there’s bipartisanship you can believe in.
