The Stickiness of Military Spending
Posted at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 26
The military and defense contracting industry have been vocal about the need to lift the sequester cuts set to take effect on March 1, but many have noted that the cuts closely mirror other post-war defense budget reductions. Reihan Salam examines why it is so difficult to reduce military spending.
“Looking beyond counterinsurgency as such, the human capital needs of the U.S. military are increasingly difficult to meet… And so the cost of recruiting and retaining high-quality personnel is high and rising.”
“More prosaically, increases in military spending are likely to prove sticky because investments in military hardware tend to flow to domestic firms that manufacture or that provide services domestically, distributed across large numbers of congressional districts. As employment levels increase, the political pull of these firms increases as well.”
