Defense Budget Cuts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Defense Budget Cuts - Essay Example The defense cuts are likely to cause irreparable harm not only on the capabilities of institutions but also to the men and women in uniform. However, compared to education, healthcare and green economy, spending within the military is a deprived basis of creating jobs1. Pollin and Heidi show that $1 billion investment in clean energy, education and healthcare generates between 50 % and 140% more jobs compared to similar amount spent by the pentagon2. Nevertheless, it is impossible to separate concept of economic security from that of national security since they are both dependent on each other because the current threats to US economic and national security are identical3. Therefore, regardless of whether the US remains a super power or not, the country has to invest in military capabilities to respond to these threats. Although maintaining robust defense is essential, the prevailing economic challenges to the US pose a unique challenge to defense budget; hence, the need for the def ense sector to rise to the challenges of the turbulent times. Although many defense experts believe that the defense sector requires extra funding in modernizing its weapons, they mostly fall short of quantifying certain shortfalls with recent comparisons targeting defense budget with regard to the GDP4. With regard to capability, depth and conventional power, the US military remains the dominant force in the world, which is also true to the size of the nation’s defense budget. For instance, the country’s defense spending is 7 times that of the second leading nation; moreover, the US spent 29 times more compared to the 6 rogue states of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria and Sudan, in addition, US defense budget is greater than the GDP of these nations5. Therefore, it is clear that the US enjoys a substantial advantage in its size of the defense budget owing to the largely technologically advanced military that requires substantial funding.