Great piece by Representative Barney Frank over at The Nation. Once again Frank has hit the nail on the head of the elephant in the room regarding the budget: Defense spending.
http://www.thenation.com/...
I wish more congressmen would be this direct.
I would be very happy if there was some way to make it a misdemeanor for people to talk about reducing the budget deficit without including a recommendation that we substantially cut military spending.
Sadly,in his fervor to convince the American people that we are in a financial crisis,President Obama is falling down IMHO in his duty to educate all of us in the basic fact that domestic programs he proposes will not be feasible without cutting some military spending.
For those out there who find the notion of cutting back on the Pentagon's "budget" too scary. Frank offers some words of fiscal comfort:
It is possible to debate how strong America should be militarily in relation to the rest of the world. But that is not a debate that needs to be entered into to reduce the military budget by a large amount. If, beginning one year from now, we were to cut military spending by 25 percent from its projected levels, we would still be immeasurably stronger than any combination of nations with whom we might be engaged.
Regardless of how you feel on the necessity to stay strong, Frank points out even the great Greenspan was forced to admit that: "...military spending was like insurance: if necessary to meet its primary need, it had to be done, but it was not good for the economy; and to the extent that it could be reduced, the economy would benefit." Again, from Frank:
The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy.
The point here is that stimulus, job creation, tax cuts, whatever you think we need to do, it can't be done unless we reduce our defense spending.