President Barack Obama has a proposed a woefully inadequate budget for missile defense for FY 2013, neglecting his duty to defend the United States against foreign military threats
Congress needs to support plans to fill the gaps in the defensebudget between FY 2009 and FY 2012 and pave the way to sustaindefense budgets at 4 percent of GDP for the long term.
The debate over missile defense has shifted from whether missile defense should be pursued as a matter of principle to whether deploying such a defense will be effective in practice. Victory inthe debate over the principle of fielding a missile defense must befollowed by victory in the debate over fielding a truly effectivedefense for the American people.
The military’s health care and retirement systems have serious structural problems. Simply tinkering around the edges will leave military personnel and taxpayers paying more for less service. Instead, as The Heritage Foundation proposes, Congress should transform the military health care and retirement systems into defined-contribution plans that maximize individual choice. This would enable military personnel to tailor their benefits to match their individual circumstances while saving the Department of Defense at least $ZZZZ in five years.