Does anyone here think the US needs to spend lots MORE on defense? I'm interested in the reasoning behind that position if you'd like to share.


I just heard in some radio commentary in passing that the Romney campaign was proposing an increas of defense spending to 4% of GDP. What struck me about that was, of course, surprise that this is on the agenda at all. But even more so was to peg it like that to GDP. Shouldn't defense spending be based on likely threat scenarios and specific national defense needs? How does it make sense to say we should spend said amount independant of needs?

Is this really just about industry subsidy? Sort of like "feed the beast" to keep jobs and key industries going?