Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on the Neoconservative Defense Delusion

Neoconservatives went into a funk last week when President Obama called for $400 billion in "cuts" in projected Pentagon spending through 2023. The Weekly Standard's Thomas Donnelly called the cuts "morally and strategically unsound"—never mind that what Obama has put on the table are not even actual cuts. Furthermore, notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in her latest column in The Daily, America already spends more on defense than the rest of the world combined. Demanding even more so that America can keep playing global cop would be indefensible even in good economic times. "But, right now, it's tantamount to asking someone whose own home is in foreclosure to buy a new security system for their neighbor on their credit card," she writes.

 Read the whole thing here.

Comments

[GOP]

This entire article is treason. And you have a suspiciously non-white sounding name. We would suggest you get a lawyer, but hey, lets be honest…where you’re going, you won’t be allowed to have one anyway.

[Tim]

Get Her!

[Gilbert Martin]

Every last cent spent on defense is infinitely more justifiable than any cent spent on any type of entitlement/welfare program – since there is an infinitely greater Constitutional connection – however tenuous to defense spending for anything vs absolutely zero Constitutional connection for any entitlement/welfare.

And there is of course, far more spent on entitlements that defense as well.

Go after the fattest and most illegitimate targets first before fixating on military spending.

[Almanian]

Yes, by all means let the perfect be the enemy of the good – no defense cuts until….something else is cut! Or something!

Constitutional or not, US defense spending is an abomination against common sense and decency, and should be cut regardless of what happens to the rest of the budget (with usual libertarian disclaimers, etc. etc. etc.)