Why we must raise defense spending
The Pentagon and the welfare state have been locked in brutal combat for decades, and the Pentagon has gotten clobbered. Protecting the country was once the first obligation of government. No more. Welfare programs — Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and other benefits — dwarf defense spending. As a result, we have become more vulnerable.
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There are many telltale signs that defense spending, though now exceeding $600 billion annually, is being squeezed.
A new study by Todd Harrison and Seamus Daniels of the Center for Strategic & International Studies reports the following:
-- “For FY [fiscal year] 2015, the Army’s active duty end strength reached the lowest level since the end of World War II.”
-- “The Army has noted in congressional testimony that two-thirds of its Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) are not at an acceptable level of readiness because of personnel shortages, maintenance backlogs and insufficient training.”
-- “From its peak in FY 1987 to the trough in FY 2015, the Navy’s ship count fell by more than half.”
-- “The total aircraft inventory of the Air Force declined by 44 percent from its peak in FY 1986 to FY 2016.”
Sizable increases in defense spending seem warranted to compensate for past underfunding and to confront new challenges. China and Russia loom as potential adversaries; North Korea could become a global menace; the Middle East remains a cauldron of conflict; global terrorism survives; and new forms of warfare — cyberattacks, drones and space-based conflict — demand new responses.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.fd7be9f217d0
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Originally Posted by Ron Paul
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