While watching the Senate debate on the continuing resolution to keep from shutting down the government, I heard many senators (from both parties) talking about how we need to "rebuild" our military. For that purpose, they want to once again increase the military budget. I disagree.
Look at the chart above showing military spending in billions of dollars. Note that the United States already spends far more than any other nation does on defense/military spending. In fact, you can combine the spending of the next 11 biggest spenders (both friends and enemies) and you would still not quite equal the spending of the United States.
How can it be that we spend so much more than any other country and still have a military that needs to be rebuilt? That makes no sense. We are spending enough to have the readiest and most capable military in the world -- and if we don't have that, then it is obvious that money for defense is being spent poorly (or wasted).
And that is exactly what is happening. Money is being wasted on things that do not contribute to our national defense. A prime example is that the U.S. is operating about 900 military bases around the world.Do we need 900 military bases around the world to defend our country? Of course not. We could cut that number by half (or even three-quarters) without affecting our national defense at all.
If we really need to rebuilt our military (or increase its readiness), we could easily close many (if not most) of those bases, and redirect those funds to rebuilding the military or its readiness.
We also waste money by pumping billions into the military-industrial complex for weapons that do not work and for weapons the military has said it doesn't want or need. Too much of this money doesn't help the military or national defense, but just goes to fatten the bank accounts of corporations.
We already spend enough to have the best military and national defense in the world. We do NOT need to spend more. We just need to stop funneling unnecessary money into the military-industrial complex and operating bases that are not needed for our defense. We need to spend smarter -- not spend more!
