Commentary: If Washington is serious about tackling the debt, defense — which makes up nearly half of all discretionary spending — has to be on the table.
With all of this in mind, the question must be asked: Why is U.S. defense spending given such special treatment? Why does every other agency have to make priorities while the Pentagon can roll around in a money pit and buy legacy weapons systems that the building’s own budget and policy officials don’t even want?Daniel DePetris: The U.S. can afford a defense spending cutThere are, however, plenty of reasons why the U.S. defense budget could use a trimming.
In reality, however, the U.S. remains in a very secure and advantageous geopolitical position. It has the great fortune of living next to neighbors that in the grand scheme are friendly and don’t have wider territorial ambitions. The U.S. economy, inflation aside, remains quite strong and continues to attract talent from all over the world.
To the extent the U.S. has geopolitical problems, they are largely of its own making. Driven by a need to preserve a U.S.-dominated global order and a tendency to view international relations as an epic, existential contest between right and wrong, the U.S. often overextends itself — or worse, backs itself into wars that atrophy the U.S. military and undermine U.S. power.
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