Conservative A.J. Delgado is critical of her fellow conservatives on defense spending.
Conservatives are fiscally responsible. We believe in smaller government, cutting government spending and reducing the national debt. So why do we support reckless, bloated, wasteful government spending on so-called “defense” — and even fight to increase it?
She then provides them with some hard numbers.
In the 2015 fiscal year, our defense spending will total approximately $600 billion. It is a staggering, sobering statistic. To put this in global perspective, when looking at a list of the top 10 defense-spending nations (a list we top), one sees we spend more than the next seven on that list combined. Yes, we outspend China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, the United Kingdom, India and Germany put together. China has a population almost five times the size of ours yet spends only about one-fifth of what we spend. And Russia, who, like China, is a militaristic culture engaged in steady conflict, with widely respected military might, manages to spend only about 12 percent of what we spend.
She points out that we have a 100,000 troops stationed at 800 basis around the world and asks if this is really necessary. One thing she doesn’t mention is the lemon known as the F-35 which has been over budget and an under performer since day one but we continues to throw good money after bad. These fighters have caught fire on take off and been grounded for months at a time. Recently a 1970s F-16 was able to fly circles around an F-35.