Defense Spending Must Be Rational
Cuts announced by Defense Secretary Gates may be painful for Virginia, but the Pentagon cannot keep counting on massive budget increases.
Predictably, Virginia politicians began hyperventilating when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a plan Monday to close the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk.
Gov. Bob McDonnell called the decision “outrageous” and immediately announced plans to form a commission “to find ways to preserve the tremendous federal investment in our military and security infrastructure” in Virginia.
Virginia’s congressional delegation, including Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb, also weighed in with condemnations of the decision, almost all focusing on the tremendous loss of jobs and investment.
Despite McDonnell’s irresponsible and inaccurate suggestion, Gates’ decision is not the result of defense cuts or of expanding social programs.
Another Republican, Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, was even more dramatic in his opposition to this move: “We are now seeing the piecemeal auctioning off of the greatest military the world has ever known.”
Nonsense. The Pentagon budget has increased under President Obama, and the United States currently spends more than every other nation in the world combined.
Gates knows, though, that the spending increases that have sent unending waves of money coursing through the Pentagon since 9/11 are unsustainable. As the deficit becomes more of an issue, defense spending will have to be examined.
It is not the Pentagon’s responsibility to provide jobs for Virginia, or any other state.
Gates makes a convincing argument that JFCOM has outlived its purpose, and that the vital functions it does continue to serve could be most effectively and efficiently handled by other commands.
When the command was created, inter-branch rivalries made cooperation difficult. Since then, as Gates noted, “the U.S. military has largely embraced jointness as a matter of culture and practice.”
There is still a need for joint training and exercises, but “they do not necessarily require a separate four-star combatant command,” he said.
We don’t downplay the impact on the Norfolk area of potentially losing 5,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending. But Gates is right to ensure that priorities for defense spending reflect national security needs.
Defense spending next year will come close to $900 billion, the largest single component of the 2011 federal budget.
If the deficit is going to be brought under control, defense spending must be restrained — which means making sure that the Pentagon has its priorities in order.
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