https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/american-defense-spending-budget-cuts-unwise-global-threats/
A new bipartisan report exposes the dangers facing America.
Last month, when the Treasury Department reported that the fiscal year 2018 deficit was a staggering $779 billion, President Trump made an announcement. Before meeting with his cabinet, the president said he would be asking every secretary to trim 5 percent, “if not more,” from his or her budget. Nor would he exempt the Department of Defense.
Here’s hoping Trump changes his mind. Cutting the resources available to the Pentagon is a bad idea. A new report from the bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission underscores just how bad.
“Providing for the Common Defense” is the consensus of a dozen national-security experts, including Jack Keane, Senator Jon Kyl, Eric Edelman, Gary Roughead, Michael Morell, Anne Patterson, and Roger Zakheim. These are sober people. Experienced people. They are not given to exaggeration. Yet their conclusions are alarming. “The security and wellbeing of the United States are at greater risk than at any time in decades,” they write. “America’s military superiority—the hard-power backbone of its global influence and national security—has eroded to a dangerous degree.”
Great-power competition returned as our military advantage dissipated. “America’s ability to defend its allies, its partners, and its own vital interests is increasingly in doubt.”
That’s more than a wakeup call. It’s an air horn inches from your ear.