Defense cuts: Cheney is out of touch

The fact that Dick Cheney would characterize Secretary Hagel’s very reasonable proposed cuts to the defense budget as “absolutely devastating” just reveals how out of touch he and his fellow neo-con Republicans are. The grossly bloated size of our current defense budget—larger than the combined budgets of both our friends and our enemies—is merely a temptation for precipitous and adventurous actions—like Iraq and Libya—that we should be avoiding.

As a lifelong active Republican I only hope that Cheney’s reckless and ill-considered remarks will not cause other Republican leaders to commit suicide by agreeing with him. We Republicans have enough problems with our perception as the party repressing individual rights at home and encouraging military adventurism abroad. We should be adding a dose of libertarian philosophy to our platform, not budget-straining wasteful defense spending.