It's Time To Scrutinize The Pentagon Budget

There is nothing about the absolute size of a half-trillion dollar Pentagon budget that should concern Americans if that expenditure is necessary for the defense of the nation and if, as a nation, we are rich enough to foot the bill. But in the shadow of 9/11 and subsequent wars, that budget has been exempted from the type of scrutiny it received during the 1990s. Still it constitutes so much of our discretionary spending and has contributed so much to our deficit spending that we can no longer afford to look the other way.