Military Spending Not In Tune with Needs

From American Thinkers, Gerd Schroeder:

On the 17th of May, Congress, in a 397 to 27 vote, has forced the military to cut $32.1 billion from its budget over the next five years. The biggest hit is aimed at the Army, which is currently shouldering most of the burden in the war. One may think that this is acceptable reduction of an annual budget of roughly $538.5 billion (including the $100 billon being withheld by Congress). However the question is why the military is being forced to cut back in a time of war?


Many in Congress love to crow about how the military is getting run down in maintenance, retention, and training. Yet the same people are refusing to give the military what it needs to heal itself, conduct a war, and stay ahead of the rest of the world.


Congress is taking $26 billion dollars from the American People, to buy votes to fund the Congress's new policy game of, "lose the war". However, one could rightly say that Congress is taking from the budget of the US Military in the form of $32.1 billion from 2008-2013 in funding, to pay for the pork that they are dolling out to shiftless members of Congress to buy votes for a policy that will severely damage National Security, otherwise known as withdrawal from Iraq.


Many people seem to have forgotten what the American Military has been recently asked to do. Here is the short list.

• Increase the US Army by 30,000 soldiers;
• Fight a war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in many other diverse places around the world against our Islamic fascist enemies;
• Keep the military technology ahead of the rest of the world to maintain a overwhelming conventional overmatch to competitor nations;
• Secure the seas for safe passage of ships to provide economic security to the nation and the world;
• Increase the Marine Corps and Army by almost 100,000 over the initial 30,000 mandated increase;
• Have the best trained Military in the world;
• Provide every technology we can to protect our fighting men and women;
• maintain air superiority; and
• fight two conventional regional wars simultaneously.

This all takes money.

While $538.5 billion dollars is a great deal of money to the average American, the military budget is still less than 4% of the GDP. Compare that to the Cold War funding (between 13.1 and 4.6% of GDP) or WWII (about 40% of GDP). The military doesn't even have the money to do the missions that it is asked to do now; yet Congress, somehow, sees fit to cut the military budget. It is as if we are in wonderland, and Congress is painting the roses red in an effort to cover up their increasingly damaging policies.

Gone are the days of the infamous $1500 toilet seats and $500 hammers. The military budgetary process is very restrictive and regulated from within, and from without by the CBO, and GAO. The money that the DoD asks for is required by the demands of Congress.

Good questions to be asking for a Congress that "supports the troops."