With Independence Day around the corner and appropriations underway, one can expect many politicians to call for more Pentagon spending as a patriotic duty.

However, patriotism consists of more than empty gestures or spending more money on wars. It’s about keeping our country free and safe. This includes keeping taxpayers free from unnecessary spending and keeping troops safe from unnecessary harm. In the aggregate, Pentagon spending is shrinking as a share of the national budget and has been doing so for decades. But that’s mostly because other spending is going up even faster.