Admiral against spending ‘extra dollars’
Vice Adm. Stephen Stanley, the Joint Staff’s director of force structure, resources and assessment (J-8), this week downplayed the call by some inside the Pentagon and out to spend 4 percent of gross domestic product on national defense.
Historically, the United States has been able to fund defense at about 4 percent of GDP, including during the Vietnam war, the Reagan administration’s arms buildup and the first Gulf war, Stanley said during a May 11 Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association luncheon in Washington.
“So we can afford that requirement,” Stanley told the audience. “Now, should we fund at that level? Well, my perspective is no. I don’t want us to spend one extra dollar on defense. I want to spend every dollar on defense that’s required. So if we’re able to afford the nation’s defense at 3, 3.5 percent, that’s all we should spend, from my perspective.”
Although Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen often says “it’s got to be 4 percent,” he uses these statements as “a way to start the dialogue,” including what the nation can afford, Stanley explained.
This year, discussion of the 4 percent rule emerged again.
In February, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) introduced a joint resolution supporting a base defense budget that at a minimum matches 4 percent of gross domestic product. It was referred to the armed services committees.
“This legislation serves the national interest, first and foremost, because it will allocate the resources necessary to protect the United States,” argued the Heritage Foundation’s Baker Spring, James Carafano and Mackenzie Eaglen at the time. “Adopting the spending guideline proposed by this resolution and crafting annual defense budgets to implement its goals would be the most efficacious means to not only sustain but revitalize the military America needs.”
Even during an economic slowdown, the U.S. economy can afford to devote no less than 4 percent of GDP to the core defense program, the foundation analysts asserted. The proposed level of defense spending is achievable and sustainable, they argued.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation also weighed in on the debate earlier this year, noting Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican Sen. John McCain (AZ), Mullen, conservative security analysts and several members of Congress have endorsed the 4 percent proposal.
“First and foremost, it is worth pointing out that when including war funding, the United States already devotes well over 4 percent of GDP to defense,” the center said in a statement. “Advocates of the 4 percent plan conveniently omit war costs from their calculations, as if spending on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan somehow does not count as defense. Moreover, the United States spends significantly more, in inflation-adjusted dollars, for defense today than it has at any time since World War II.”
In fiscal year 2009, the United States spent $513 billion, or 3.4 percent of GDP, according to the center’s calculations. Adding in war costs, the country spent $687 billion, or 4.6 percent of GDP, on defense, the center noted. -- Fawzia Sheikh