Mariah Nelson
Economics
Straub
08 May 2014
Military Spending Cuts
We have recently been talking in class about the Federal Budget which has given me the opportunity to determine as to where budget cuts should and should not be made. The military budget I thoroughly believe should not be cut for several reasons. If we were to drastically cut the military budget even if we are not currently at war it would leave the US at a vulnerable position for future terrorist attack which could eventually lead to yet another war. The US military is down sizing rapidly in 2011 the US Army had some 566,000 soldiers but the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel wants to decrease that amount to somewhere between 440,000 to 450,000 troops by 2019 these cuts would cause the army to be at its pre World War II size. If this is to happen and another war was to break out the Army would be too small to really fight back. Having such a small Army in a time of turmoil could cause another problem alongside the issue not being able to fight back it could bring the draft back because of the immediate need to increase the size of the Army. According to “Obama’s Historic Defense Cuts Spell Disaster” these budget cuts could lead to increased turmoil in the United States this could quickly lead to a war because of the vulnerable position we would be in with how quickly our Army is downsizing. This article also states, “If the United States had maintained it’s spending under Ronald Reagan, it is possible that the attacks of 9/11...beginning with the World Trade Center in 1993 would have been stopped.” Budget cuts do have consequences and because of them horrible things that could have been prevented ended up happening. Of course there are other factors that lead to 9/11 but our nation's defense was not the best at this point in time airport security was poor and they allowed for too much to get through security. The was also already tension in the middle east which catalyzed the whole event but the fact of the matter is that it could have been prevented and was not and military budget cuts had been made. In conclusion, I do not believe now is the time to be making budget cuts in the military and it is definitely not the time to be downsizing, things in the middle east are still tense and our military needs to be prepared if something happens. With everything that is happening in the Ukraine and with what just happened in Syria now is a time when our military needs to be prepared for anything and everything and believe it or not that costs money. It costs money to train soldiers and train them well.
Video
Works Cited
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/25/defense-budget-cuts-history
Interesting content, Mariah. I totally agree that now is not the time to be cutting the military budget or downsizing. Although we are not in war, things are tense over seas and it makes me slightly nervous to know that we would be vulnerable and at risk because of these budget cuts. I was also really intrigued and shocked to think about the fact that 9/11 could have been avoided if the military hadn't been downsized. I'm not sure where you exactly stand on budget cuts, but perhaps it's a good time to cut budgets for foreign aid and focus more on budgets that will directly help our country. Let's protect our country and our people first, and then worry about the other nations. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI loved your topic choice! I completely agree with you in that our federal budget should not cut any money from the military. Also it's scary to think that 9/11 may not have occurred if the military had been larger--but I see that as a conspiracy and that it could not be avoided. If you don't believe the military should receive budget cuts, where do you think the United States should cut their spending? Well done!
ReplyDeleteI don’t think it’s entirely fair to pin point the occurrences of 9/11 to the cut of the military budget. True, it may have been prevented, but that still seems to be a radical assumption. I believe that a weakness was just seen and exploited by an extremist enemy. In response to this though, we made the Department of Homeland Security which has its own independent budget from the Department of Defense which I believe you’re talking about. Regardless though, I agree with you on maintaining the budget. I think that the Military creates jobs for mechanics and doctors and other individuals as well as creating demand for businesses across the US by purchasing raw materials and other goods. The budget may need some adjustment, but it shouldn’t be slashed.
ReplyDeleteMariah I agree with you all the way on how we shouldn't cut the spending on the military but we should at least pull some money away so that we aren't wasting money on nothing. We should only spend money on things we are needing we could do this by taking troops out of the areas that they are in and bring them back. I won't get into that topic but I do think that we should cut some but not all for the military.
ReplyDeleteThe military budget is probably the biggest area of wasted government spending. We have tens of thousands of troops on bases in Germany and Japan, but these are left over from World War II. Is it really necessary to keep all these bases going around the world when they haven't been used in an actual war for several decades? Also, decreasing the size of the military would not affect our capability to wage war; there has not been a conventional war fought in decades between two standing armies, wars are now fought on a smaller scale and are being increasingly dominated by machines. To reduce government expenditures and help decrease budget deficits, it is necessary for military spending to decrease dramatically.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't fair to say that a bigger military force could have stopped 9/11 their are so many more factors that were in play during that point in time. although i agree their is a lot of spending focused on military strength i don't think we should be making any drastic changes to our forces budget, as a global super power and as a target of many i think it is important to stay militarily strong and to prepare for possible adversity in the future.
ReplyDeleteCutting spending on the military doesn't necessarily mean we are decreasing the amount of troops, we could pull back some bases that they have placed in places where we wouldn't necessarily need them. Yes, some other place can randomly attack somewhere but what is the probability of that? It would be another Pearl Harbor which I really don't think we need to worry about. I don't think we should be decreasing the size of our army, just some spending that isn't really needed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this fully. If and when we get another terrorist attack like 9/11 and we go to war we would have to bring the draft back. And cutting the budget will just make it easier for us to get attacked again.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Mariah completely being in the fact that i'm joining the military i see fit that the military doesn't downsize because of budget cuts, but also be provided with more income and funding to keep the military's future bright and flourishing. But then again this is a biased opinion from me because i again am someone who has some type of tie with the military, but an other person would simply tell you the same, although it is a very great cost to fund such a big organization, it is well needed funding and in the end won't be regretted. Our military is one of the greatest on the face of this earth, as i am lead to believe, so why decrease it and make it so that in case something was to happen, our military has not much of an offense nor a defense, but leaving us strung up with our pants down. I see no need in the budget cuts of our military, although it will help in our debt, there is always a two ended sword in these situations, it will still leave us with consequences for doing so.
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