A nice way to understand how the federal budget breaks out.
I haven't checked in the last couple of days, but I think that National Defense was a constitutionally mandated function of the federal government -- unlike education, world hunger, alternative energy, healthcare, Head Start, etc.
So really, that is a demonstration that even though we are misappropriating billions on functions that are prohibited under the 10th amendment, there is still some perspective in government.
Posted by Phelps at January 27, 2004 04:47 PMAs a libertarian, shouldn't you at least want to cut defense spending to the same level as the other programs? Or doesn't the word "libertarian" mean anything anymore?
Posted by Al-Muhajabah at January 28, 2004 02:49 AM
"libertarian" covers a wide spectrum, just as "liberal" or "conservative" does.
There are indeed libertarians who think that even national defense should be left to the citizenry, but on the other extreme there are those who appreciate the rule of law they enjoy and who are of the opinion that the state should limit itself to those functions that can't be done by the private sector, and grant the monopoly of violence to the state.
So, if we can assume that the state must provide 100% of national defense, but only provide education or healthcare for those not capable of providing it for themselves, the numbers make sense.