CHART OF DEFENSE SPENDING THROUGHOUT U.S. HISTORY

– The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation – blog.heritage.org

Chart of the Week: Defense Spending Throughout U.S. History

Posted By Rob Bluey On January 8, 2012

President Obama visited the Pentagon on Thursday to outline his plan for gutting our nation’s military [1]. Obama’s vision makes America more vulnerable to foreign threats and leaves our armed forces less able to provide for the common defense.

As we’ve previously illustrated [2], Obama has proposed significant reductions to the Pentagon’s budget. This week’s chart shows how sharply defense spending has dropped as a percentage of the total federal budget — currently well below its historical average despite ongoing operations overseas. The chart also debunks the myth that our Founding Fathers were isolationists [3].

During his Pentagon visit, Obama claimed the country is safer today than when he took office. Heritage’s James Carafano, writing in the New York Post [4], called Obama’s assertion “laughable.”

Not only is the world not a safer place than when Obama came into office, the strategy his Pentagon has produced to deal with today’s challenges may well make it far worse.

Let me translate the Pentagon report into English: The administration is going to gut the Army and Marine Corps, while hitting the Navy and Air Force less (for now). The “strategy” basically says, We have a four-legged stool; we’re going to cut off two legs.

For more information on defense spending and how the Budget Control Act of 2011 will impact our nation’s military, Heritage produced a fact sheet that outlines what cuts to expect in the future [5].


Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: blog.heritage.org

URL to article: blog.heritage.org/2012/01/08/chart-of-the-week-defense-spending-throughout-u-s-history/

URLs in this post:

[1] outline his plan for gutting our nation’s military: blog.heritage.org/2012/01/05/obama%E2%80%99s-new-defense-strategy-less-of-the-same/

[2] previously illustrated: blog.heritage.org/2011/11/20/chart-of-the-week-defense-spending-dwindles-under-obama/

[3] debunks the myth that our Founding Fathers were isolationists: blog.heritage.org/2010/12/10/the-myth-of-american-isolationism/

[4] writing in the New York Post: www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/gutting_defense_JTMp5AaH7cERrdzBCan1XM#ixzz1iprAAaLK

[5] fact sheet that outlines what cuts to expect in the future: www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/12/defense-budget-is-being-cut-by-any-way-you-look-at-it

Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.

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