October 25, 2012
Since 2009, nearly $900 billion has been cut from the defense budget. This happened despite the fact that the majority of Americans do not want defense cuts.
As The Heritage Foundation’s Bianca Falcone explains:
According to the Foreign Policy Initiative’s (FPI) national survey, a majority of Americans support America’s role in world affairs and do not believe that we spend too much on defense. Therefore, action must be taken to change the current plan to haphazardly slash defense spending.
After surveying 1,000 likely voters across party lines, FPI found that 92.2 percent of Americans “believe it is important for the United States to continue playing a significant role in world affairs.” Protecting American’s interests, and maintaining a significant role in the world, requires a strong national defense.
Here are the numbers from the FPI poll:
- 92.2 percent of Americans “believe it is important for the United States to continue playing a significant role in world affairs.”
- 40.1 percent believe the U.S. spends about the right amount on defense.
- 23.0 percent believe too little is spent on defense.
- 14.5 percent believe defense spending is the largest contributor to our national debt.
Even though most Americans don’t want to see any more defense cuts, if sequestration takes effect on January 2, we can expect to see another half-trillion-dollar reduction in defense spending. The sequestration cuts are coming at a horrible time, too, because our defense readiness is already threateningly anemic, as U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno stated: “Frankly, we are on the razor’s edge when we talk about readiness.”
Voters also agree that our nation’s security is under threat: “59.8% of respondents now believe that recent events in the Middle East have made national security issues more important in their deliberations over whom to vote for.”
Do you worry that our national defenses will be further hurt if we cut any more defense funds?
Steven Rankens - October 26, 2012
Absolutely Yes! Obama talks about how much he admires our “people in uniform” and yet if he gets his way thousands of jobs will be lost because he will gut the military. In these times, if anything we need a strong military. Other people are trying to kill us at home and abroad. The Navy is the same size as it was in WW1, that means we cannot defend both our shores at the same time, that makes me concerned. I have no problem paying more taxes to defend this nation and our people. God forbid Obama’s re-election because if that happens I fear for all Americans! We will be a second or third rate military and country which is exactly what this president wants. I used to sleep well at night hearing the sounds of our military jets overhead and close by that’s the SOUND OF FREEDOM! We need to be an exceptional nation, military, and people not servants to our government. Let’s return this president and his administration to the private sector, so they can be forgotten and swept under the rug. WE NEED TO MOVE ON WITH ROMNEY – RYAN.