The Defense Hawks Have it Wrong

The Obama Administration has released its defense budget plans and they're slashing programs right and left. The F-22 is gone, Future Combat Systems is gone and the Navy will drop below 10 carriers. There's a Wall Street Journal editorial today decrying these cuts, but attributing them to the wrong reason.

In the 1990s, defense cuts helped pay for increased domestic spending, and that is true today. Though Mr. Gates said that his decisions were "almost exclusively influenced by factors other than simply finding a way to balance the books," the broad list of program reductions and terminations suggest otherwise. In fact, he tacitly acknowledged as much by saying the budget plan represented "one of those rare chances to match virtue to necessity" -- the "necessity" of course being the administration's decision to reorder the government's spending priorities.

No, no and no. This is all wrong. When you're planning on printing a trillion dollars to pay for your spending, there are no budget cuts necessary. This has nothing to do with the budget at all. Like everything else this administration does, the reasons are in their actions, not their words.

Obama's Mystical Apology Tour in Europe helps point the way on this one. We're disarming the US because he thinks we're evil. Period. If you still don't believe me, recall the immortal words of his pastor of 20 years.