Question:“Why is it that Republicans justify cutting programs such as education and environmental conservation under the pretext that they cost too much, and yet they cry bloody murder if anyone even suggests cutting down on the half-trillion dollar defense budget?” — Oliver
Answer: Liberals advocate enormously expensive programs that achieve nothing like Kyoto on the environmental front and never ending increases in education spending despite the fact that the money never seems to improve performance. That’s why conservatives are generally opposed to throwing good money after bad on new spending that seems unlikely to accomplish anything.
On the other hand, because of our spending on national defense, we’re an influential super-power with the most dominant military mankind has ever seen. Furthermore, the national defense is responsibility #1 of the Federal Government for obvious reasons. As British Labour Defence Minister Denis Healey once said,
“Once we have cut (military) expenditure to the extent where our security is imperilled, we have no houses, we have no hospitals, we have no schools. We have a heap of cinders.”