by Tina Grazier
In a few months we will select a new president and members of Congress. It will change the makeup of our governing bodies. Each and every representative will takes an oath to defend this nation. Will our new leadership take the defense of our nation seriously?
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Liberal progressives have complained loudly for forty years about excessive spending on defense. Democrat presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton during this period dutifully cut spending budgets for our national defense.
Conservatives worked to rebuild our military capability but generally speaking spending for the defense of our nation has been in decline.
Investors Business Daily, “The Defense Rusts”:
In the first six years of the Clinton administration, Bush 41's budget projections for weapons procurement were slashed by $160 billion. For fiscal 2000, the Congressional Budget Office said $90 billion a year was needed to hold procurement steady. The Clinton procurement budget was a mere $55 billion. *** Our defense budget was at a postwar high of 14.2% of GDP in 1953 during the Korean War, 9.5% in 1968 at the height of Vietnam and 6.8% in 1986 at the height of the Reagan buildup that doomed the evil empire. At the end of the first (and we hope last) Clinton presidency, we spent just 3% of GDP on defense.
The Heritage Foundation reports:
At 4 percent of GDP, defense spending is one and a half percentage points of GDP below the 45-year historical average and well below Cold War and Vietnam War levels.
Keep this in mind the next time someone complains about how much we spend on ships, planes and defense equipment. in order to remain strong, safe and free. In today’s world a “rusty” defense is not only foolish, it is dangerous. Democrats have shown time and again that they do not honor the oath to defend our nation.
Please…vote wisely!
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