Playing Chicken With The Defense Budget?

Will we have the money we need to meet our national security needs? That depends on whether we are willing to raise taxes. That’s the word from Congressman Adam Smith (D-Washington) who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. He spoke yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute and declared that making arguments to protect defense is enough. Without a sizable tax increase, “defense will be crucified,” he said.

“If we continue to insist there’s going to be no new revenue then you should stop arguing about defense, because with no new revenue, defense will be cut,” he said.

The defense budget is going to have to go down. Anyone who says that it can stay on constant levels is lying to you. If it doesn’t get cut, our debt will continue to balloon. And financial insolvency is the largest national security threat that we face today.

But Cong. Smith is wrong to play chicken with the defense budget and to use it at leverage to push for a tax boost. don’t see him (or anyone else) making similar arguments for cutting other programs. Protecting the country is one of the duties that the federal government is absolutely given in the U.S. Constitution. How about cutting away those things not specifically prescribed on the Constitution and then take the knife to defense?