Heritage Foundation To Sec. Gates: Spend More
Speaking at the Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum over the weekend, Defense Secretary Robert Gates emphasized the need to curtail soaring military costs. "Given America's difficult economic circumstances and parlous fiscal condition" Gates noted, "military spending on things large and small can and should expect closer, harsher scrutiny."
The hometown of President Dwight Eisenhower, still famous for warning about the danger of unchecked growth in the military industrial complex, provided an apt backdrop for words that pointed at all three corners of the Iron Triangle.
The speech built on a sharp warning he gave to the Navy and Marine Corps Monday at a Navy League conference, where he urged them to think more deeply about the challenges facing its costliest platforms - including aircraft carriers that run $11 billion each, future ballistic missile submarines costing $7 billion apiece and a Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicle.
In a post at The Foundry (the Heritage Foundation's blog), Baker Spring responds by writing that defense spending is not really a problem at all. "Left unexamined," he writes, "Secretary Gates' statement would lead the average American to conclude that it is defense spending that is bankrupting the federal government and threatens to bankrupt the country. In fact, it is Secretary Gates' statement that deserves closer, harsher scrutiny."
Instead of scaling back on programs that don't serve our security needs, Spring's suggestion is to spend more. "These investments" he writes, "should be increased." That seems to fly in the face of conservative dogma, until you realize that the Heritage Foundation only believes in belt-tightening when it suits their political agenda.
And either way, they come out ahead. If the appropriate cuts are made, they'll warn that the Obama administration is making us weaker. If unnecessary programs continue, resulting in increased deficits and debt, they will continue to blame the Democrats for overspending.
