Acknowledging the truth that you do not wish to hear.

I have been watching with interest, the mil-blog reaction to the “new” strategy announced by the President and the Secretary of Defense-namely that the US has to know its limitations; and that so long as we choose to not raise enough revenue, then cuts must come to the federal budget. And as much as it pains some people, those cuts have to include the defense budget.

Now that rightly concerns me-since for better or for worse, I have thrown my lot in with DOD-so as to fund and extend the expatriate life style I aspire to. In a proper world-DOD funding would be at Cold War levels with respect to US GDP and the invention of the VTC would be undone-thus necessitating the kinds of frequent travel I desire and crave. But deep in my heart of hearts-as painful for me as it is to admit-making cuts to the defense budget is something the nation will have to do. No matter what the personal costs are to yours truly.

It is not that the United States can no longer afford to be a world power-it has the resources to be one for many years to come. However, as long as the country makes the cutting of taxes a pre-eminent priority, then the die has been cast and the great retrenchment must surely come.

Now Lex would have you believe that this folding of our military tent is not a requirement. It seems that he would rather place the blame-and the burden-on the weakest members our own society. This so we can ensure we remain involved in helping worthless Arabs accomplish nothing-primarily because its in their nature to do so. They are Arabs after all-residing at the bottom of the human evolutionary ladder. They don’t have to stay there of course-but until they discard their apostate religion of Islam-then at the bottom they shall remain. As recent events in Libya and Egypt are proving-Arabs can screw up anything in just a little time. They have made their choice.

And regrettably-so too have we.  As long as the United States chooses not to raise the revenue it needs to raise to take car of its own citizenry, then cuts and retrenchment must surely come. In that regard, I have to sullenly admire Ron Paul, for he-alone among the clown circus that is the current GOP Presidential field-has been forthright in acknowledging the facts: a good deal of our growth in government has come as a result of the wars-and the costs of maintaining the “empire”. ( An empire with none of the perks that come with empire-land to raise our flag over, vestal virgins to be ravished. )

Lex believes its all to rest on the collectors of the results of the social contract:

As has been pointed out in these pages many times, the ongoing financial crisis is not defense driven – we are currently expending a historically low percentage of our Gross Domestic Product on DoD accounts. What has changed is that entitlement programs have mushroomed to hitherto unthinkable levels, and they show no signs of abating. Spending on social services has taken all the oxygen out of the federal budget, even as deficit spending has risen to giddying heights. Slashing defense spending is not the cure, but rather a palliative: The patient is bleeding out, and in response the doctors are surgically removing a leg. True, that will reduce the gross need for blood, at least for a little while. But it does nothing to stanch the bleeding.

 

They’re called “entitlements” because, once the public has been introduced to them, they feel entitled to equal or greater levels of dependency. Rolling them back requires massive expenditures in political capital, and virtually guarantees popular revolt. See also; Greece, Italy.

 

 

In a word-bullshit.

As I have shown in these pages repeatedly-its not a spending problem that we have, it’s a revenue and fairness problem. Just eliminating the Bush tax cuts-while at the same time withdrawing from the foolish wars we have started, would more than halve the current –and projected -deficit. Ezra Klein has adeptly pointed out that most of our financial woes are self-inflicted. We would rather enable the selfish and elite-than do what’s best for the majority of our citizenry. Social Security can be fixed-and maintained or transitioned. And Medicare can be helped by a comprehensive overhaul of all of our health care system. Something we sort of achieved in 20009-but not fully.  Lex conveniently ignores the fact that every other civilized nation on the planet provides universal health care access for its citizens. The United States, however, turns its back on obvious solutions. Or was it just a figment of my imagination that my first doctor’s appointment here in Germany cost me half what my last appointment did here in the United States. Which works out fine for me-because my employer, unlike so many that Lex praises-provides health insurance. And what they didn’t pay-was paid for by one of those pesky entitlements. An entitlement I am entitled to-because I earned it.

So I should be on the same side as Lex-and rooting for holding the line on defense cuts. From a purely selfish standpoint-I can see the point of view. But as I said earlier, in my heart of hearts, I know it’s a fools errand. To quote Lex, “as long as the country has its attitude towards taxation’-then cuts must come. Kind of sad really since-when viewed in the macro perspective-we have the money for both guns and butter. But we would rather make the richest one percent of the US even richer-while a great percentage of the workforce eeks by on 30,000 per year or less. Is this a viewpoint you really want to defend?

A couple of other points. Lex hangs his hat on the fact that percentage wise-defense is a small part of GDP. My response to that is: “So what? That proves nothing. What percentage is it of the Federal budget?” Its 25%.  The U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2010 for about 19% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures and 28% of estimated tax revenues. Including non-DOD expenditures, defense spending was approximately 28–38% of budgeted expenditures and 42–57% of estimated tax revenues.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000–2009. Because of constitutional limitations, military funding is appropriated in a discretionary spending account.   The numbers would go down-if we didn’t have the burden of the wars-wars Bush started and refused to pay for. Percentage quotations of GDP are just a red herring. Its where (some of) the money is.

“But what about all the world’s bad actors?”

What about them? If you want to have a role to play in countering them-then you have to have the resources to do so. We do not. Being a super power costs money-we are choosing not to get the money to pay the bills. The money is there-especially in a country that has rich people making the kinds of obscene sums they do. And-as gruesome as it maybe-some of the killing by the actors is not our affair. The Arabs can kill themselves all they want to-it does not require the presence of Americans to happen. And given a choice-I’d rather an Iraqi to die in Iraq than an American. If nine years of a presence in Iraq have proven one thing-it’s that our being there is not going to stop that.

The Lex’s among us would rather point fingers at Europe and decry their priorities. Europe has its problems as I am learning now first hand-but it’s also made a lot of progress in valuing things that are important and discarding the things that no longer serve the citizenry well. ( It certainly has better food, booze, train service and a better attitude about time off than my homeland).   Perhaps through bitter experience they have learned the value of Herman Wouk’s admonishment: “Either war is finished-or we are.”

Now that’s a hard thing for a guy who grew up and thrived on  adventures due to the cold war to admit. I like being a part of the empire. I want to live my life overseas and in its benefits. However the nation of my birth has chosen to no longer pay for that empire-and so like our British forefathers our empire will probably enter into decline.

And much as it pains me to admit it, maybe it needs to.