Tell us: Can we afford what we spend on the military or is it weakening the economy?

Pro — We do have deficit problems, but national security cannot be shortchanged. National defense is the first responsibility of government, and it is too important to let fiscal concerns dictate our level of spending on it. The US can clearly afford its current national defense budget — after all, it is just 4 percent of America’s economy and this percentage has been going down for some years.

Con — These enormous national defense budgets actually hurt us by adding to the deficit, weakening the economy, and obligating future generations to repay the debt. Other parts of the economy are short-changed, diverting talent and resources from other goals and weakening America’s economic competitiveness — which hurts our security in the long run. We need to rebalance our priorities and rein in defense spending.

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