Back in the '70s and '80s I remember that liberals wanted to decrease spending on the military; my recollection was that this was one of the issues that the Left agreed about for the most part. Then Reagan increased defense spending even more and the accepted narrative is that this drove the Soviet Union out of existence. And I have to admit that, much as I am a Reagan-hater, it's probably true: the Soviet economy couldn't keep up with us in an arms race, and trying to do so was a factor in their whole enterprise going south.
So I'll accept that high defense spending in the 1980s was good for the US. But how about now? The US spends almost twice as much as the next-highest spender per capita on defense. Why? There's no Soviet Union now.
When we talk about ways to decrease spending, why is the military always off the table?
(chart is from Matt Yglesias- sorry if it's hard to read, I'm just learning this stuff)
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