Members in Congress have difficult decisions to make in the near future. Some Republicans are willing to cut down budget spending in our active war in Iraq, while others say that cutting down defense spending is not a good idea because our men and women who are fighting overseas need protection in order to prevent further danger against our US citizens.
The one good outcome that would result would be the cutting down of the defense as well as canceling weapons. Doing this would result in a great decrease in spending for military defense and it would slowly decrease the US's 1.3 trillion deficit. However, cutting down of the defense could also mean that a lot of people would be out of work since the production of weapons and other defense items would no longer occur.
The defense budget is $700 billion annually. Only a few in Congress have been willing to cut down military defense since US troops are still fighting in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Tea party committees have said that if the government is going to cut down spending, then the military's budget also needs to be included in this decision.
Personally, I think that cutting down defense would be a good decision on behalf of the US government because we have spent way too much money on a war that has been going on for almost ten years now. I feel that instead of spending money, we are actually wasting money on this war because we haven't come to a conclusion yet and an enormous number of troops have died overseas. Instead of spending so much money on this recent war, I feel like we should have spent that capital on other areas of the nation such as improving school programs (instead of cutting them down), hospitals and healthcare, parks, highways, etc. I really hope that the US government makes a good decision regarding the defense spending because our nation should not be spending a large amount of money on a war that does not seem to have an end to it.
What do you guys think about this proposal of defense budget cuts? What do you think the US government will decide regarding this difficult task? Let me know what you think!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
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2 comments:
The Constitution states that the country will "provide for the common defense". With the rise of increasingly sophisticated weapons around the world, the United States is starting to turn into a modern day version of the old Soviet Union. As the more arms we reduce, the greater the possibility of being attacked. I feel that all these military cuts significantly harm the state of our military today.
Most of our planes, boats, vehicles, and other weapons are now approaching retirement age. Due to the increased need for money, even our C-5 Galaxy's and B-52's have been flying for excess of 40 years. On the other hand, other countries are developing new transports and bombers that are far more fuel efficient and effective than ours.
Our Coast Guard also was forced to end most of their upgrades making it harder to save people with technology that is becoming outdated. Our Marines are probably going to have to cancel the production of the V-22 Osprey and the new F-35 due to budget cuts. Once again leaving them with much older helicopters.
Meanwhile, China is increasing the power of their military. Even India is starting work on stealth fighters. From a foreign standpoint, the US is starting to lose steam.
Due to the large amount of workers in the industry, I do not feel that it will slow the deficit that much as workers without jobs require unemployment benefits. Without money to spend, they will not be able to stimulate much of the economy. There are cities throughout the country that suffered at the hands of the NASA cuts a couple of years ago, followed by the auto industry. We are lucky that the Bay Area is not entirely based off the defense industry, but there are other cities who are entirely dependent.
I think these cuts will pass as many feel strongly about cutting military spending, but I think it is important to recognize the potential consequences of such actions.
Finally! I feel that defense spending has been much too high for too many years. I think some high ranking military official even said that we didn't need to spend as much as we do. This money can be much better spent on something like education, stimulus spending, or even something crazy like reducing the deficit (sarcasm). In this area, I think the tea party is right to add some cuts here. The money has to come from somewhere and this is a good place to start.
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