With the House vote to repeal Obamacare and the visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, Americans have awoken from our legislative holiday to be firmly reminded about the U.S. debt situation. Most sources agree: the public U.S. national debt has accumulated to over $14 trillion, or roughly $125 thousand per tax payer.
Former President George W. Bush helped create much of this debt, but President Barack Obama has increased spending far beyond our current means of balancing the federal budget. Ceteris paribus, we will be accumulating over a trillion dollars in debt every year.
Fortunately, there might be hope for our government’s future. While the obvious targets for budget cuts are Obamacare and other social programs, one of my number one budget cut targets is finally getting consideration.
On Jan. 6, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a $78 billion cut in defense spending over the next 5 years. However, these cuts only deflate the surplus Pentagon spending over average inflation. This means we won’t see actual cuts; rather we are just culling back the projected budget increase. While a step in the right direction, I was hoping for something more substantial.
“What about 9/11? We can’t afford to lose security in today’s world!” Not this time neo-con! It’s a new decade and Americans seem to be wising up. The TSA’s cop-a-feel program is only the latest in a string of incidents forcing Americans to push back at the “9/11 over liberty” hegemony.
As much as I hate to admit it, the Tea Party might be able to persuade Congress for more significant cuts to our defense budget. My common ground with the Tea party lies within their message of broad tax and budget cuts.
Fortunately, the elected Tea Party officials intend to hold their promises. Keeping with the idea that nothing is safe from budget cuts (or the recently popularized buzzword “sacrosanct”), many Republicans have admitted the defense budget is on the table. Even House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has confirmed the defense budget is open for downsizing.
As a longtime opponent of excessive defense spending, I anticipate some ease in trimming the budget. Once defense spending gets the final approval, politicians will find a plethora of programs to cut back.
According to the last Pentagon count, we control 865 foreign military bases, not counting any in Iraq, Afghanistan or any publicly known “secret” bases. In Germany alone we control 268 bases, including the tactical Bavarian Alps (Ski) base.
Some of these bases have estimated yearly costs of over $3 billion each. If you think bases are expensive, consider the $30 billion we still have allocated to the Osprey project, a helicopter-plane.
While tensions in Korea aren’t going to go away anytime soon, I fail to understand why we need to be the principal investor in keeping the free world safe from a dying Kim Jong-Il. I’ve been playing StarCraft since I was 10; the South Koreans can hold their own.
We need security, but we can’t use fear as an excuse to abuse the budget.
