Bob Schaffer: “if my colleagues look at this chart which shows the extraordinary decline in defense spending under the Clinton…”

“if my colleagues look at this chart which shows the extraordinary decline in defense spending under the Clinton administration, they might be alarmed at just how low a priority the military has been given in recent years. But this chart does not tell the whole story. This chart shows the cuts in procurement spending, the kind of spending that impacts military readiness years down the road. Here we see the very cuts of our military capabilities have been slashed, especially during the first 2 years of this administration, when antimilitary Democrats controlled Congress. The scary part about these cuts is that future Presidents will have to worry about them long after the current President is out of office. Spending on new weapon systems, modernizing old ones and upgrading the state-of-the-art equipment have all taken a back seat during this administration to new Washington programs that mainly benefit special interests. Republicans want the best military possible. Military strength tends to guarantee the peace. Weakness invites aggression. When will the other side learn this lesson?”