"If we know anything, it is that weakness is provocative." – Donald Rumsfeld The Pentagon's proposed budget for FY2016 has been released, and over at the Washington Post, they are proposing that "Obama's new defense budget looks like Reagan's." No, it does not. The U.S. defense budget has declined continually in real dollar terms since Obama took office.  In 2008, the budget was US $760 billion in constant 2016 dollars.  The FY2016 budget is proposed at only US $585 billion – a 23-percent reduction in just eight years. By the time Reagan left office, the Pentagon's budget was more than 30 percent higher than before he took office.  Obama's budget is the exact opposite. But more importantly, the U.S. is starting to fall behind in the global arms race. Reasonably reliable global military spending data begins in 1988 – the last full year of the Reagan administration.  The following chart shows...(Read Full Post)