Are social programs more important than national security?

National security is the primary and most important responsibility of our federal government. But in the Obama Administration, common defense takes a backseat to spending on social programs like health care reform and Medicaid. Even though we're drowning in debt, Obama is seeking to increase spending by $3.8 trillion in 2013 to $5.8 trillion in 2022 to support these and other programs. That's a 53 percent increase in spending - funded by the taxpayers and more borrowing -- which basically adds an additional $6.7 trillion to the federal deficit.

America's debt is crushing us and we simply cannot afford to continue this spending spree. Unfortunately it seems the only area the U.S. administration does seem willing to reduce spending on is our national defense. In the past few years, more than 30 defense-related programs have been “canceled, capped or ended,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed. These include plans for a long-range bomber, the F-22 program, the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, and two Pentagon agencies. Planned cuts also include a 30 percent reduction in the nation’s nuclear stockpile and a 50 percent decrease in the missiles, subs and bombers used to deliver them. Hundreds of military bases have closed and the ranks of admirals and generals have shrunk.

In other cuts, the Navy shut down the U.S. Second Fleet, which trains all strike groups before deployment. The Army canceled a missile system and the Army and Marines agreed to shrink their numbers. Meanwhile, one of our best defenses against short and intermediate-range airborne attacks is the Standard Missile 3 (SM-3), which can intercept enemy missiles while in flight. But the President cut funding for the newest version of SM-3, despite complaints that it's already in dangerously short supply.

Incredibly, President Obama is now seeking to cut military defense spending by an additional $450 billion, a figure well above his earlier target of $400 billion in cuts. These are volatile times and considering that both U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Israel have predicted that Iran will be capable of launching a nuclear missile at the U.S. as soon as 2014, now is hardly the time to shrink our national defense capabilities, while spending the rest of the country into oblivion.

Either way you look at it, our President's actions are putting us at serious risk.

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