Dr. Scott Magill
The Journal Times
Your editorial about defense spending (“Defense spending needs harder look,” 2/3) advised Congress to take a hard line against funding increases above the president’s proposed budget. But the more likely scenario is much more dangerous: another round of drastic cuts next January, sapping strength from our military and costing 1.5 million Americans their jobs.
Under the terms of last year’s budget deal, a round of huge, automatic, across-the-board budget cuts will begin in January 2013 unless Congress takes action to stop it. The defense budget will be slashed another 23 percent across the board, lopping off $500 billion in planned spending over the next decade on top of the $450 billion that’s already been cut.
The new cuts will ax essential programs like modernization of fighter jets and combat ships, refinement of satellite technology and missile defense, and research & development of next-generation weapons and protections for our soldiers.
Your editorial said, “We don’t want to be where we were just before World War II.” Yet sequestration would shrink our military to pre-World War II levels, threatening our ability to respond to future threats. China, Iran, North Korea and Russia are investing in their military. We fail to do so at our peril.
