Spending on Defense—How Much Is Enough?

Without question, the U.S. has the world’s most expensive military.  According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2015 the U.S. spent 3.5% of GDP, the world’s largest by far, on defense, a whopping $582 billion.  The percent of GDP spent on defense may seem high but is not nearly the highest in the world.  According to Forbes, Saudi Arabia spends 10.4% of its GDP on defense, followed by Israel at 5.4%, and Russia at 4.5%.  U.S. spending is fourth as a percent of GDP.  China with the world’s second largest military claims to have spent only 2.1% of GDP or $215B although many China experts believe the real figure to be much higher.

The very first sentence in the Constitution articulates preeminent government functions.  “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.”  National defense is a core function of our government.  Yet, in 2015 the defense of our country and our way of life was a distant third in the budget.  From the Congressional Budget Office:

The Courts have upheld that federal spending on Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, welfare, and health care are constitutional.   A crucial question that must be addressed by the citizens of the United States is how much should we spend on the plethora of generous social entitlements such as unemployment insurance, disability pensions, food stamps and other forms of welfare, and retirement and health care relative to spending on the critical function of national defense?  Spending on these “entitlements” has increased astronomically since the end of the Cold War:

                                                            1991               2015              % increase

*Compare to the trend in the defense budget over the same time period.

Having the social benefits support structure that Americans now enjoy is well and good, but what will that be worth if our enemies defeat us in the future because we have neglected our national defense?  Spending more on defense does not require increasing our national debt if we have the political will to shift some of the excessive spending on social benefits to national defense.  Means testing for Social Security, elimination of rampant fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, time limits and job search conditions on unemployment compensation, more rigorous medical screening on disability claims, and work requirements for supplemental food assistance are all reforms that have great potential to reduce the overwhelming financial burden of our social services networks.

If you survey the current literature among organizations with expertise on our military, the picture of the readiness, capacity, and capability of our current military is not pretty.^[1]  Much of our current military is too small in the face of burgeoning threats and our forces are in many areas no longer technologically superior to our potential adversaries.  These recent assessments by organizations listed above conclude that the number of ships, aircraft, missiles, and other weapons and the manpower to support those platforms, is insufficient for defending the nation and carrying out national strategic policy.  America, it is time to wake up before it is too late.

Notes:

^[1] For example, the Rand Corporation, the War Colleges, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the Center for International and Strategic Assessments, the Heritage Foundation, DoD and CIA reports, the Congressional Research Service, the Mitre Corporation, the American Enterprise Institute, the list goes on and on.

Brent Ramsey is a retired U. S. Navy Captain with 30 years combined active and reserve service.  His civilian career spanned 23 years as a financial, logistics, and operations manager supporting Naval Construction Forces and Oceanographic programs.  He and his wife live in Balsam, North Carolina.