Sen. Ben Cardin To Obama: Freeze Military Spending [View All]

A Democratic senator urged President Obama on Tuesday to include the military budget in his proposed spending freeze.

"Defense represents a significant part of our discretionary spending in this country. The defense establishment needs to be under fiscal discipline, as do all of our agencies." Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) told reporters in the Capitol. "I don't think defense should be exempt. If there are extraordinary things that occur that require us to respond for national security, we always will be prepared to do that. But to exempt the normal military spending just because it's military, to me, is wrong."

The U.S. government spends more on defense than on all other discretionary spending combined, according to the Congressional Budget office.

The CBO estimated that for fiscal year 2009, the government will spend $584 billion on non-defense discretionary spending. Meanwhile, the U.S. will lay out $657 billion on defense spending. That would make it 4.6 percent of the gross domestic product, the highest share since 1992, when the Cold War ended.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/sen-ben-cardin-to-obama-f_n_437109.html

Good for him! Somebody needed to say it!