In the latest of the long shot libertarian’s moves to distinguish himself from the rest of the GOP presidential field, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson this week called for cuts in defense spending, and massive cuts at that. In a new web ad, Johnson makes the case to pare back the defense budget by 43%.  To underscore how serious he is about this, Johnson enumerated the areas in defense budget that would not escape a “President Gary’s” scalpel: procurement, equipment, overseas troop levels, weapons systems, personnel – including civilian support staff. 

Johnson underscores his point about redundancy in military spending by joking on a blogger conference call, “Do we really need to blow up the world 23 times over, or would eight times be sufficient?  (Johnson’s numbers were gross estimates, off the cuff.)  His only caveat was to remind his listeners that “I’m not an across the board guy,” and cuts would be carefully considered.