Even though Obama’s proposed Pentagon budget is more expensive than last year’s budget, the Republicans insist on calling it a huge cut in defense spending. So, here’s my question.
We all know that it is pointless to do things (like refuse to cut defense spending) to avoid Republican criticism. After all, they accuse you of doing these things even when you are not. It’s the mirror image of the Republican’s tendency to call environmental deregulation bills things like the Clean Skies Act and the Healthy Forests Initiative. Orwell would be proud. But, does Obama get anything out of the Republican’s critiques not actually being true?
My tentative answer to that is that it depends on the degree to which the ‘impartial’ press is willing to report the objective truth. As in, “The Republicans falsely claim that Obama is weakening the country by slashing the Defense budget, but he is in fact raising the overall budget by $21 billion.”
I’d prefer to slash the Pentagon’s budget by about 20% over Obama’s first-term, but re-prioritizing defense spending is just as important as cutting. Obama’s defense budget is an improvement in spite of its overall higher pricetag. But if the pricetag is higher to fend off criticism, the only way that will work is if the national media is willing to tell the people the truth without hedging. And when has that ever happened?
