Reduce U.S. military spending

3/17/2010

Let's pretend the unthinkable occurs: You have lost your income. Your house is being foreclosed on. You can't pay your school loans. You have no health insurance. Food stamps and other assistance programs are coming to an end.

But once a week, you go to the sporting goods store to purchase guns and ammunition.

More than half of the U.S. budget is dedicated to military or defense-related spending, with much of the rest of it going to pay the interest on our debt.

We do not need Harvard-educated economists or the International Monetary Fund to tell us that this won't last long.

Either bring the military home and drastically cut the numbers of enlisted soldiers, or stop sending kids to college. Heck, you can stop sending them to kindergarten, because we can't afford to keep the buildings open or pay the teachers.

Instead of us texting a celebrity to donate $10 to Haiti, the Office of Management and Budget should be holding telethons to pay off the debt we owe China and the rest of the world.

Otherwise, there will be more change in our lives than any military could ever prevent.

Joshua Z. Singer

Harford Road