Defense of the Future - Cut The Past

When Congress looks to cut federal expenses, lets teach them to protect the future. 
Americans are facing yet another round of nail biting political haranguing about how to reduce the nation's growing deficit. We just experienced a dramatic deal whereby the middle class were spared tax increases at a time when we're all climbing out of a recession. 

But a tax deal isn't a budget.

Attempting to balance the federal budget leaves virtually no easy choices to help close the cavernous divide between income and revenue. As Congress looks to lift the nation's debt borrowing ceiling, the right wing Republicans see another deadline looming whereby they can, once again, play political games rather than practice statesmanship.

There's a way out of these roulette wheel budget negotiations. It's called leadership.
For example, future defense expenditures will not involve expensive tanks and transport vehicles. Rather, our future defense will be more like Science Fiction. It should, also, be less costly than what we pay for today.
In fact, the future of defense is "now". National security threats Americans face are cyberattacks on national telecommunications and electronic systems, or sabotage on poorly secured nuclear weapons components stored throughout the world. Terrorist attacks can occur virtually anywhere, as the massacre at Fort Hood in Texas, perpetrated by a Muslim physician sympathizer, is one horribly recent example. 

A retired army Colonel living in North Carolina says "None of these (moidern) threats require the type and amount of weapons systems the defense industry and its lobbyists insist we need." 
Moreover, the retired Colonel says that our nation can be helped to return to a vibrant economy by reducing defense spending and putting the money, instead, into significant improvements in our nation's education systems at all levels.

Congress should stop creating drama with every budget deadline. Instead, Congress should pay for a future without spending on huge defense contracts, that pad the margins of companies producing outdated technologies. Instead, Congress should cut the past and spend the future. Investments in education will create highly skilled workers who will protect our nation's quality of life, while growing our economy through reinvestment, by becoming prosperous citizens.

Meanwhile, our national debt ceiling should not be a bargaining chip for partisans who must, as leaders, create a budget. Leadership requires common sense solutions. It makes no sense to play games with our nation's important fiscal issues, especially, when many solutions are self evident and, perhaps, even proactive.