Defense reform can fuel recovery

Opinion: February 14, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By William D. HARTUNG

McClatchy-Tribune

Advocates of higher military spending are already spreading cries of alarm about the potential economic and national security impacts of the Obama administration’s proposed adjustments in the Pentagon’s spending plans released lat week. In fact, we can implement a smarter, more affordable approach to defense and revitalize the economy at the same time.

Despite the post-World War II record military budgets of recent years, the Department of Defense will present a budget that, according to its own briefing materials, will only decline by 1.6 percent in real terms over the next five years. This is a modest adjustment at best, not the kind of strategic shift we need if we are going to restore our position of global leadership.

As President Obama pointed out last month, “We need to renew our econo-mic strength here at home, which is the foundation of our strength around the world.” To do so, we need to get our fiscal house in order while simultaneously investing in activities that will help us adapt to the economic challenges of the 21st century. In his State of the Union the president pointed to two key pillars of future economic growth, quality education and increased support for scientific research. But how will we pay for these efforts at a time when the federal budget is being cut back?

That’s where reforming and restructuring the Pentagon budget comes into play. Even after taking into account the adjustments proposed by the administration, we are slated to spend well in excess of $5 trillion on the Pentagon over the next decade. Spending on that scale imposes huge opportunity costs.

Poor job creator

As a recent study by economists at the University of Massachusetts has documented, military spending is a particularly poor job creator. Virtually any other use of the same funds, from a tax cut to education spending, creates more employment than Pentagon outlays.

In an era of deficit reduction, every dollar we spend on the Pentagon comes at the expense of a dollar for education, or infrastructure, or energy research, or essential state and local government services. That means that unnecessary military spending can result in a net loss of jobs nationwide.

Retaining and creating jobs in the short-term is critically important. But we also need to plan for the future. A healthy, well-educated work force bolstered by public investments that lay the groundwork for new products and new industries is the foundation of future growth. This will be a heavy lift if we fail to institute needed military reforms that can free up funds for these purposes.

Thankfully, we have a unique opportunity to do just that. The administration just needs to take its own rhetoric to heart. The positive elements of the defense policy review that the administration unveiled last month can provide a more focused, disciplined, and affordable approach to protecting the country.

These positive elements include the plan’s call for an end to long-term, large-scale nation building efforts like those in Iraq and Afghanistan; its recognition that diplomacy and development can be as or more important as military approaches in dealing with the most urgent threats we face; its pledge to stop funding outmoded weapons programs that don’t address current and future threats; and its suggestion that we may be able to sustain nuclear deterrence with a smaller nuclear arsenal than we currently possess.

Army, Marines

Reductions that can and should be made as part of a new strategy include cutting the size of the Army and Marines by about twice the levels proposed by the administration, to reflect the de-emphasis on large scale, “boots-on-the-ground,” conflicts; eliminating or drastically scaling back overpriced and underperforming weapons systems like the F-35 combat aircraft; and abandoning plans to build incredibly costly and strategically unnecessary nuclear weapons programs, from new nuclear bombers and submarines to new nuclear weapons factories.

Economic security should be our top national security priority, and enacting real defense reforms is the most direct way to provide for it.

William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, New York, N.Y. Distributed by MCT Information Services.