Tag: military budget

How NOT to make America Strong Again

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/M901_TOW_missile_vehicle_(1985).JPEGI found this two page document in my old military career files. I believe it was circulated to every U.S. military unit in West Germany. Note the lack of official office header. Note our battalion commander’s short-hand direction, in the upper left corner, to ensure every officer read it. I have typed, in red, the words that are too faint to read on this old photocopy. After the document, I have a tale to tell.

What on earth caused the chain of command to be so concerned about a news article or so? In short, the new social dynamic of the All Volunteer Force. These stories, instead of being managed as part of the political game, were causing pain to those politicians, generals, and industry leaders who had hoped to benefit from the stories with new spending.

Loose Cannons and Nuclear Buttons: Dealing with Russia

 

Every time I see “statesmen” foaming at the mouth about insufficient posturing against Russia, I go back to the basics. There are exactly two countries on this planet capable of reducing any country on the face of the earth to toxic, smoldering ruins in hours. These are the United States of America and the Russian Federation (the latest manifestation of the Russian empire).

President Trump has done an admirable job, like most presidents in the Atomic Age, of keeping the natural tensions between the two megadeath powers inside the safety limits. He has succeeded, so far, despite the worst efforts of his domestic enemies, who are more serious about destroying him than they are about national security.

This week on Banter, AEI Resident Fellow at the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies Mackenzie Eaglen joined the show to discuss her latest white paper “Defense Budget Peaks in 2019, Underfunding the National Defense Strategy,” which analyzes President Trump’s second defense budget. She argues that this budget misses the mark on suggestions made in her report from earlier this year, “Repair and Rebuild: Balancing New Military Spending for a Three-Theater Strategy.” Eaglen has worked on defense issues in the House of Representatives and Senate and at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and on the Joint Staff. You can read both reports at the links below.

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On Getting Serious

 

I spent yesterday afternoon debating spending and the deficit with some fellow local Republicans. My view on the subject is really quite simple: Cut it all. There is no program, no department, so sacred that it shouldn’t be cut in some fashion.

That said, we have to talk about the Big Three: Social Security, Medicare, and the military. These three spending categories together represented 74 percent of federal spending in 2015, according to these guys. If you are going to do something about the $500 billion in overspending, you have to do something in these three areas. Period. It’s just math.