Pro — America is threatened by an increasingly hostile world, with threats coming from many corners of the globe. Reducing our military would lower our guard and make us more vulnerable. If problems broke out in more than one place, we would not be able to deal with them all. Furthermore, cutting defense spending would be seen as a sign of weakness and would embolden our enemies to challenge our interests.
Con — Even though there is no country in the world that can even come close to matching us militarily, we are spending more than we did at the height of the Cold War. The national defense budget has gone up and up so that it is now more than three times all of our potential enemies combined. This is way out of proportion to the real threats we face and doesn’t buy us more security.
Editor's note: Between now and May 9th, we will be presenting questions adapted from a national survey by the Program for Public Consultation, a nonprofit group affiliated with the University of Maryland, that was developed jointly with the Center for Public Integrity and the Stimson Center. The survey, which was done with a representative national sample, is meant to gauge public attitudes on whether and how defense spending should be reduced as part of Washington’s effort to trim projected federal deficits totaling $10 trillion over the next decade. The national survey is now being analyzed and findings will be presented on the websites of the three organizations involved and at a joint press conference on May 10th. Visitors to this website are welcome to register their opinions as well; a tally of those results (not to be confused with the findings of the scientific sample of the survey) may be given on the website at a later date. —R. Jeffrey Smith
Past Daily Defense Questions
- Day 1: Should the U.S. lead in military spending or share more of the burden?
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