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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Travis Sharp
Cuts to the defense budget are necessary because today's elected leaders and their constituents seek policies that are not mutually sustainable.
Lawmakers feel broad pressure to do three things: 1) reduce the deficit, 2) maintain or reduce today's approximate level of tax revenue, and 3) preserve the approximate balance among current spending on entitlements like
In purely economic terms, the United States can afford to spend as much on defense as
it does today -- approximately
Assuming lawmakers continue to pursue irreconcilable policies and defense cuts therefore remain inevitable, how should they be implemented?
The Budget Control Act's automatic trigger will double the defense cuts that are already planned, resulting
in
Instead of using this politically-tinged process to cut defense spending, lawmakers should set a 10-year target for total cuts and instruct the Pentagon to manage the drawdown in a gradual fashion. This approach would enable defense officials to spread reductions more evenly over the coming decade, thereby preventing the incredibly disruptive effects that the Budget Control Act's trigger would impose in 2013.
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Cuts to Defense Budget Might Be Inevitable But Pentagon Knows Best | Politics
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