Issue Position: National Defense

Issue Position

Maintaining our National Defense is the first priority of our national government. As a former military officer and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I understand its importance. In the U.S. Senate, I will work to maintain our military strength and superiority. This is not only critical to the safety and security of the American people, but I know that it is essential to making the world a safer place as well.

After ten years of fighting, our military has been over-extended and much of our equipment is showing its age. The Obama administration has implemented $500 billion in defense cuts through the cancellation or delay of over 50 major weapons programs. Many of our current military platforms are old and need to be replaced with more advanced equipment that will give our troops the advantage needed on the battlefield. Some of our bomber and tanker pilots are flying planes first flown by their grandfathers.

However, it is impossible to have any rational conversation about defense spending and maintaining our military capabilities without a discussion of the economy, the budget crisis, the deficit and the national debt. The fall of the Roman Empire was precipitated not by a military failure, but economic decline and the inability of the Empire to afford a military. The economic vitality and the fiscal solvency of government are the backbone of military supremacy and the superior strength of a nation.

Therefore, it is critical from a military perspective that we get our economy going again and that we deal definitively with our government's long-term financial problems. I have dwelled on economic and budget issues elsewhere in the website, but to summarize, we need reductions in spending across the board and long-term entitlement reform to address these issues and guarantee a more secure future for all Americans.

Raising taxes is not a solution. Our tax system is already highly progressive with the top 1 percent of wage earners paying 37% of all income taxes. Liberals try to fix our budget woes by raising taxes. But the true source of difficulties is a problem with spending, not the lack of taxes. If the Congress and the President cannot come to terms on long term entitlement reform, then it is generally agreed by most budget experts that on our current path, entitlement spending will continue to consume a larger share of our budget, leaving less money for our essential national security needs and thus undermining and putting our nation's security at unnecessary risk.

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