Home > Debate Club > Should Cuts Be Made to Domestic Social Programs to Protect the Defense Budget? > Entitlement Programs, Not Defense, the Source of Deficit Crisis

Entitlement Programs, Not Defense, the Source of Deficit Crisis

Cutting the defense budget puts the country at risk while ignoring the true source of government overspending

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The military is the biggest entitlement program of them all! 25 percent of the federal budget! Nothing else comes close! Yes to trimming it, since halving the military budget would still make us the dominant military in the world!

Joan Truth of TX 12:00PM July 31, 2012

US defence spending adds upto approximately 20% of the federal budget, and you are suggesting that it isn't part of the 'big three', where as social security - which also takes up approximately 20% of the federal budget is. Furthermore, the other two of the 'big three' medicare and medicaid, combined, add upto a not dissimilar 25% of spending.

And that explains why defence is taking a bigger hit - because it an equally vast, if not larger and largely superfulous, slice of the pie.

So we have two options here, either you knew that and were being 'economical' with the truth and what you included, or you haven't done your research.

Chris 1:41PM July 20, 2012

Perhaps opinions like these are the reason we have this partisan stalemate. I'm not sure I would call social security and medicare "buying a new car every year." Given that Americans pay into these programs their entire working lives, they expect to enjoy the benefits when they retire. Perhaps a better analogy would be "does it make sense to keep filling your car up with gas when there is a whole in the tank?" We need to find effective ways of curbing health care costs - tough but doable. Social security is not that difficult a fix with just a little bit of political will to increase the retirement age and lift the ceiling on income subjet to payroll taxes. All while keeping in mind we have a substantially bloated military that needs serious trimming - let's not forget that!

ThePhDScientist of MA 7:49AM July 02, 2012

Scaling back our empire might actually make us safer. After all, 9/11 commision reports indicate our military presence was the inspiration for the attacks. Comparing 900 bases to flood insurance is ridiculous. It's time to stop the fear tactics and start closing bases. It's not the 1930s. We have the technology to keep tabs on global issues without having American boots in 130 different countries.

In the meantime, both Republicans and Democrats will watch the country go broke together. The left won't budge, and neither will the right. Good riddance.

Mark of MO 1:25PM June 01, 2012

Look we are spending almost a trillion dollars on security cost in all government programs and we still aren't safe. We are spending several hundred billion per year being the world's policeman, which no one wants to pay a tax to sustain, including our corporations who make large sums of revenue overseas. We are building at no cost to foreigners Missile Defense Shields, Europe has already cut $50 billion from their Defense Budgets, Australia gonna chop also. Good thing President Obama just decided to station some troops there to defend their interest.

Why are moms in Maryland taxed to support Moms in Munich? Redistribution of wealth. We spend hundreds of billions on defense of others and yet leave our borders wide open in places, yeah government works. Bill

bill of IN 3:28PM May 13, 2012

so we cut american programs so we can give money overseas to countries who do not even care fro us. this makes no sense at all.

james rogers of NM 1:30PM May 11, 2012

Barry Soetoro aka barack obama, Chris VanHollen, Dean Baker, Howard Dean, all congressmen who are members of Democrat Socialist Party Caucus, Billary Clinton, Joe-the-Biden, Al Whore, DNC chairs (past/present), etc. need to be outed for the Transnational Progressives they really are. These people don't want to secure our border or invest in our military (very fundamental basics our Constitution grants as a Federal Govt obligation to preserve/protect), but rather, their intent is to reduce our national sovereignty through ratifying U.N. treaties like Law Of The Sea, Childrens' Rights Treaty, Small Arms Treaty, U.N. Agenda 21, create a world without borders (which is why our border has remained porous for decades) using USA as model, and taking our wealth and redistributing in the name of foreign aid (only helping the corrupt leaders of said countries), and there are Progressives in GOP too, who have been complicent in advancing deterioration of our sovereignty (Lugar, Lott, Snowe, Collins, Merkowski, Arlen Specter, etc). Some GOP warriors to follow are Senators Jim DeMint, Chuck Grassley, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Dr. Coburn, Rand Paul, and some Reps to follow Peter King, Sue Myrick, Allen West. The future of our country is at stake and we must care enough for her to get involved and kick out the corrupt bums!

wolter61 of DC 6:08PM May 10, 2012

Excellent article, the one thing that is missing from it is the fraud and exploitation of all three of these sectors by big business at the top and in the case of Medicare and medic-aide on the street. remove the graft, shrink all of these programs equally. Government is using the these programs to artificially stimulate the economy, so they are trapped. If they do the right thing they will get blamed for the fallout. Please find someone with the wisdom and courage to sell the truth to the American people and make the hard changes necessary. any Ideas?

wesley of GA 12:14PM May 10, 2012