Reducing Military Spending to Benefit Social Programs

US Defense Spending and Its Impact on the National Budget

Task:

Americans are concerned about the exorbitant amount of defense spending. In 2013 the United States spent 600.4 billion USD on defense spending. America spends more on defense than the next 20 countries combined. (Hanson 42) It is in the best interest of the nation to take immediate action to reduce military spending. “In Europe, the largest falls in the level of defense spending since the end of the Cold War have been reported. This happens as a result of cuts in defense spending caused by a shift of priorities to social and healthcare expenditure and the need to reduce budget deficits.” ( STA?CZYK 89) We should look to Europe as an example for where we should shift our priorities. Reducing the military means rethinking the purpose of the military. It should be focused on defending the United States.

However, a lot of what the military does today is defend other countries that should defend themselves. This will take time and strategic planning to make this shift. However, I propose five specific cuts to military spending that we can do immediately without any strategic planning.

1. Reduce our stockpile of nuclear weapons. A country doesn't need that many nuclear warheads to be a strong or credible threat. We can cut the number of warheads by two-thirds and also eliminate bomber portion of the nuclear triads and still have submarines and have a very strong defense. These cuts alone add up to 66 billion dollars over ten years in The Department of Defense and an additional 21 billion in The Department of Energy.

2. Cut costly and unnecessary programs. Terminate the Littoral Combat Ship. The LCS is three times the cost of its original cost and other vessels can perform the same mission at far less cost. The V-22 Osprey is hugely expensive and has a spotty safety record. (60 Minutes, 2001) Other proven technologies can deliver the same mission capabilities of the V-22 but be far less expensive. The expeditionary fighting vehicle serves an outdated mission. The marines haven't assaulted a hostile shore in sixty years. And in the unlikely event they did, they could do so with other vehicles at far less rick and far less cost. Canceling just these three programs would save 40 billion dollars.

3. Cut the Pentagon's civilian workforce. When we grow our military we grow our bureaucracy to support it back home. The Pentagon's bureaucracy’s has grown dramatically over the last fifteen years. We can make substantial cuts to the civilian workforce without undermining our security at all. A hiring freeze could cut spending by over a third and save 100 billion dollars. 4. Reduce expenditures on command, support, and infrastructure. The Pentagon estimates forty percent of its budget is overhead including rent, depreciation of equipment, IT, and network infrastructure. We need to reduce the inefficiencies by closing Combatant Commands. This would save us 100 billion dollars.

5. Reduce intelligence spending. Intelligence spending has doubled since 1998. The growth is excessive and the result has been organizational confusion and reports written by contractors that nobody reads. Cutting just fifteen percent of the intelligence budget would save about 120 billion dollars. Our military has one main objective, the safety and security of the United States and its citizens. That objective has become distorted over the years.The savings here amount to about 441 billion dollars over ten years. ( Friedman and Preble 115)We need to cut military money over seas and bring our troops home. We need to set up more bases here instead of overseas. We would have a stronger national defense and more money for our service men and women if we cut huge military spending. Another example of wasteful military spending is building a billion dollar Embassy in Baghdad. Further, we don't get strength by diluting ourselves with 900 bases in 130 countries. Our citizens are in need of social programs such as heathcare. We need to focus on helping our people who are struggling to put food on the table and have their heath care needs met. Martin Luther King Jr said that a country that spends more on defense than on its people and their social welfare, is a country dying a spiritual death. Thank you for your time and consideration in this policy matter.