RE: Tea Party candidate taken behind the woodshed by an old man asking a simple question
June 21, 2014 at 6:14 pm
(This post was last modified: June 21, 2014 at 6:15 pm by Heywood.)
(June 21, 2014 at 1:59 pm)Cato Wrote:(June 21, 2014 at 1:16 pm)Minimalist Wrote: We could cut defense spending in half without impacting our capability for DEFENSE at all. ( OFFENSE? That's a different story. )
So true. The fix is relatively easy, but neither party will go for it since particular jobs in specific districts will be affected. My idea is to set the defense budget at 2000 levels as a percent of GDP. It was the lowest since WWII. The trick is execution.
Congress should just set the budget and let the military leadership figure out how to satisfy defense mission requirements within budget. Not only are they paid to do this, but they routinely ask to cut programs and close bases for monetary and obsolescence reasons. Congress won't do this for the sole reason of keeping military related manufacturing and services jobs in their districts; i.e. vote buying.
There should also be a provision that stipulates no increase in military spending as a percent of GDP will be allowed without a declaration of war from Congress.
(June 21, 2014 at 1:55 pm)Heywood Wrote: The problem with cutting defense to the point where we have no offensive capability would likely result in the loss of seignorage we enjoy from being in control of the worlds reserve currency.
Russia and China are already unplugging from the dollar as a reserve currency and the reasons have nothing to do with how large or potent our military is.
We can significantly cut military spending and still be able to bomb the shit out of whoever we want on the face of the Earth within a few hours notice.
I'm not opposed to cutting military spending to help balance the budget. Cutting it by half as others have suggested? My gut tells me such a drastic cut is untenable.
I agree there is some movement away from the dollar as the worlds reserve currency. However not having the hands down best military in the world will only hasten that move. The fact is we do benefit greatly from seigniorage largely because of our military. That is certainly something that needs to be considered before making such drastic cuts.
