Here is my letter to my Congressman asking to cut our military spending in half. Feel free to copy any or all of it (change the names at the top and bottom). You can find your Congressperson here and your 2 Senators here. Another good resource for contacting Congress is here.
Dear Congressman Newhouse,
I haven’t found any statements by you about your position on military spending but I think it’s safe to say you are not in favor of cutting it in half. If that is the case, I would like to ask you:
Why not?
Can you please provide some rationale for our national defense budget being $640 Billion per year?
“We need a strong military,” you might say. Do we need it to be THAT strong? Can we have a strong military on half as much?
Let’s put this into perspective.
If we cut our military spending in half we would still:
- Spend almost twice as much as the next biggest spender, and our only likely major foe – China.
- Spend more than China and Russia – combined.
- Spend more than our allies Germany, UK, Japan, France, and Saudi Arabia – combined!
That’s if we cut our military budget in half. Currently we spend almost as much as the rest of the world – combined. Are we preparing to be ready for US vs. the World? Are we anticipating not having any allies? Do we even have any real credible threat to our national security at this time or will have in the foreseeable future?
I fail to see how this expenditure is necessary for national “defense”. Perhaps it is needed for other things? Here are some other possibilities:
- It is necessary to project American power overseas. In other words, for the sake of American Empire.
- We need it to secure Middle East oil.
- Defense contractors need the contracts.
- We don’t have any need for that money in our national budget so need to find someplace else to spend it.
These are the only other reasons I can come up with for spending so much on our military. Perhaps you have another explanation?
If another suitable explanation cannot be found I urge you to draft a Cut Our Military Spending in Half resolution.
Sincerely,
Kirby Hopper