Doug Bandow of the libertarian Cato Institute has called for large, if unspecified, cuts in defense spending in Forbes magazine. He starts his argument "The U.S. government is effectively bankrupt. The deficit this year will run $1.5 trillion.....Only cutting government's responsibilities can restore a fiscal balance.  Every program must be reassessed. The U.S. can't afford to be an endless soup line for every interest group which hires a lobbyist." National security, however, is the first responsibility of the government. It is not the invention of lobbyists, nor the cause of the budget deficit.   Even as the U.S. military was "surging" in Iraq, the deficit was falling. Between the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and 2007, the last year before the financial crash, the budget deficit decreased from $377.6 billion down to $160.7 billion. The trillion dollar deficits since 2008 have been the result of the recession, with tax revenues down...(Read Full Post)