Nick Gillespie: Can We Survive Sequestration Cuts to Defense Spending?

If planned sequestration cuts go through—and an increasing number of analysts think that's likely—the base budget for Defense will take a 9 percent hit. For folks such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), such a spectacle is too horrible to consider. "I'm ashamed of the Congress, I'm ashamed of the president, and I'm ashamed of being in [the Senate]," Graham told the Washington Post.

But Graham should chill out, says Nick Gillespie. Defense spending is up more than 70 percent in real terms since 2001 and the U.S. spends about five times more on national security than the next-closest country. In fact, the U.S. spent $928 billion on security in 2012. If we can't military spending now—with two wars winding down and a mounting pile of debt—we don't really have a society worth fighting for anyway.