President Barack Obama asserted at Wednesday’s presidential debate that Governor Mitt Romney wants to spend “$2 trillion in additional spending that the military is not asking for.” Obama’s assertion echoes his earlier claim at the Democratic National Convention that Romney wants to “spend more money on military hardware that our joint chiefs don’t even want.” However, Obama’s claim is deceptive, and hides the genuine debate that’s erupted between him and his Republican rival over the future of the servicemen and servicewomen in the U.S. military. 

The truth is, the Pentagon’s civilian and military leadership have gone on record to say that Obama’s current budget plan for defense—which would cut $487 billion over the next decade—is just barely able to meet America’s current strategy for national defense. In February 2012, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told House lawmakers that Obama’s current budget plan appears to provide the minimum needed to fund the military’s current strategy to defend the United States, but then quickly warned:  “Anything beyond this [level of defense cuts], we have to go back to the drawing board on the strategy” (emphasis added). At the same congressional hearing, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta added: “If additional efforts are made to go after the defense budget, I think it could have a serious impact in terms of our ability to implement the strategy.”