U.S. members of Congress call to cut war spending & overseas military expansion

Today Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Ron Paul joined in a bipartisan call for the U.S. government to face its runaway military spending:

For decades, the subject of military expenditures has been glaringly absent from public debate. Yet the Pentagon budget for 2010 is $693 billion — more than all other discretionary spending programs combined. Even subtracting the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military spending still amounts to over 42% of total spending.

It is irrefutably clear to us that if we do not make substantial cuts in the projected levels of Pentagon spending, we will do substantial damage to our economy and dramatically reduce our quality of life...

But the notion that American taxpayers get some benefit from extending our military might worldwide is deeply flawed...

In order to create a systematic approach to reducing military spending, we have convened a Sustainable Defense Task Force consisting of experts on military expenditures that span the ideological spectrum. The task force has produced a detailed report with specific recommendations for cutting Pentagon spending by approximately $1 trillion over a ten year period. It calls for eliminating certain Cold War weapons and scaling back our commitments overseas.

If U.S. taxpayers are lucky, the task force will take a longer look at the proposals for massive US military expansion in the Asia-Pacific.