Debt and the Defense Budget

As of a few minutes ago, we have a legitimate debate about the role of government and its relationship with the governed.  President Obama's speech at GWU outlined a dramatically different path to debt reduction than did Representative Paul Ryan's plan released last week, and while my political leanings take me much closer to Mr. Ryan's view of the where we should go, I was disappointed in his plan's grand "punt" on cuts to the defense budget.  When faced with a situation like that in which we currently find ourselves, everything--and I mean everything--should be on the table.

And while I find the vast majority of the President's approach lacking merit, his decision to look to the defense budget for additional savings strikes me as responsible.  While I cannot yet locate a text of his speech, I wrote down words like "missions" "roles" and "capabilities" that he seemed to suggest were worthy of a fundamental re-evaluation.  Were the President to aim one level of abstraction higher--to "strategy"--he would be getting to the fundamental driver for the inefficient allocation of resources we currently see across the defense establishment.  To repeat--if left to its own devices to find "savings" (i.e. "roles, missions, and capabilities"), DoD will dicker around the margins in a quest for "efficiencies" while the Services collude behind the veil of Jointness in order not to be the odd man out. We will be left with a military that does the same things it does now, except less well, in fewer places and to a lesser degree. In the process, our nation will be less secure.

Bryan McGrath