The White House sent the FY 2007 budget request to Capitol Hill yesterday, including a projected $423 billion deficit -- a new record, which could get worse if economic growth slows this year. If enacted, defense spending will have risen 45% since Bush took office (less in constant dollar terms, but still more than 30%), even while the military services have had to delay some major weapons systems acquisition programs under the financial strain of fighting the war in Iraq, and while overall military readiness to deal with other contingencies is in relatively poor shape.
I'm definitely not someone who favors major cuts in the defense budget, but I think we have to ask ourselves how much "bang for the buck" we're getting in terms of serving our national security interests. "Nation building" and counterinsurgency in Iraq are now sucking up a major share of the defense budget, while leaving us less ready for other requirements, and adding to the federal deficit, which in large part drives the trade deficit. The bottom line is that empire, even of the supposedly-benevolent "democratic imperialism" variant, is very expensive to maintain.
The budgetary strain from Iraq also is driving cuts in other worthwhile federal spending, especially education, where spending on subsidized college loans has been cut -- making higher education less attainable for people of working-class backgrounds. Of course, over the longer term, that feeds back into our future economic competitiveness, and our ability to keep our technological edge, which feeds back into our ability to remain the world's predominant military power.
If we want to maintain our position as the world's preeminent power, we really need to think about "rightsizing" our committments, and a doctrine for the use of force which can defend our vital interests while avoiding "imperial overstretch." We certainly don't show any evidence, at present, of having the political will to actually raise the sort of additional tax revenues which will be required in the future if we are going to carry out the sort of extensive "nation building" committments the neoconservatives and "muscular Wilsonians" would have us undertake.