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CIAO DATE: 6/5/2006
The Five Best Resource Decisions in National Security
Anthony H. Cordesman
May 2006
Abstract
I was originally asked to address the five areas where our country has the most need to invest more for its security. This, however, is not the approach I would currently take to either issues involving national security or federal spending. In fact, my approach is almost the opposite. I am not a “spend without taxing” Republican, and I don't find much to celebrate in a President and Congress that have done the worst job of fiscal management in our nation's post-World War II history, if not our nation's entire history.
If the US is to be both secure and globally competitive, it needs basic fiscal responsibility, regardless of the importance of the public policy issue. This means hard trade-offs, not betting on the come, deferring decisions, or letting future (outyear) costs escalate while appearing to control budget obligations (BO) during the current and next fiscal years. It means matching revenues and expenditures, and asking the American public to assume equal fiscal responsibility for the individual.
