In the light of what I discussed yesterday, $15.6 billion per year isn’t a realistic number – but the Military has proposed just this in cutting its own budget over the next five years. Unless of course it is couched in the proposition that we shouldn’t cut spending too quickly at the dawn of our national economic recovery. But of course it ISN’T couched in this idea – they just don’t want to let go of much dough. Though we can’t expect the Military to police their own purse-strings. In theory, that’s why we have Congress and a C-in-C.

Defense spending – in recent years – represents around 20% of the US budget. If you are serious about significantly reducing spending, reducing the national debt, etc., – as many people claim to be – you have to significantly reduce defense spending. Having your cake – while you eat it, too – is one of those fundamentally impossible things. So much so, that there’s an old saying about it.

I personally think that a strong national defense depends upon a healthy economy, which in turn requires significant spending cuts when the time is right, i.e., not in the infancy of economic recovery. Yes, there are a lot of moving parts.

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I found a strange synchronicity in reading about this a day or two after writing about this. The debate and implications could fill books. Draw your own conclusions.

B