Posted By richards on October 15, 2012
Abstract: The Preamble of the Constitution gives paramount importance to the federal government to provide for the common defence. Yet there is a troubling misconception that all federal spending is more or less equal. The Founders recognized that, as George Washington famously said, To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace. Fielding a first-rate military and exercising principled American leadership in the world depends on a robust economy. America is facing a budget crisis and a crisis of confidence. Washington has saddled Americans with such debt that it wants to cut defense to pay for burgeoning entitlements, but we should not be forced to surrender either security or our desire for liberty to fund government largesse.
Kim R. Holmes: This is the final event in our 2012 Protect America Month. We have held this month-long series for four years now to highlight the importance of national defense to the country. Weve held a lot of good events both across the country and here at The Heritage Foundation.
My colleagues and I at Heritage believe in Ronald Reagans idea of fusionismthat there are basically three pillars to the conservative movement: social conservatives who advance conservative values, fiscal conservatives, and national security conservatives who promote a strong national defense. We frequently need to be reminded of this. Particularly on the issue of national security, conservatives have been concerned about the number of threats we face.
There is, of course, the ongoing debate about cutting the defense budget. There is the issue of sequestration, which, if it goes through in January, will have a disproportionately negative effect on our ability to defend ourselves as it drastically cuts the budget of the Department of Defense.
There is, as we look around the country, some confusion about how much we actually spend on defense. There are people who, if you look at the polls, think we spend more on defense than we actually do. And there are people who believe that if you cut defense spending, you can somehow resolve the debt crisis. If you look closely at the numbers, however, you find that it is runaway entitlement spending that is feeding and will continue to feed the debt crisis, not defense spending.
Frankly, even among conservatives, there is some confusion about the place of the common defense in the U.S. Constitution. There is a tendency to see that providing for the common defence, as the phrase is used in the Constitution, is no different from any other responsibility of the federal government, since it is basically a budget item for the Pentagon. The Department of Defense is just another government program, no different from any other either historically or constitutionally or, for that matter, morally. Therefore, the phrase you hear so often today is, defense has to be on the table.
Conservatives know there is a difference. If you look at the enumerated powers of the Constitution, it does mention providing for the common defense, but you would be hard put to find anything in there about providing for health and human services. So if you consider yourself a good constitutional conservative, its important to make that distinction.
Today, to discuss this issue of how conservatives think about the common defense, we have two very distinguished gentlemenAmbassador Ken Blackwell and Dr. Stuart Butlerwith us, and well be joined shortly by Congressman Trent Franks. We are concerned not only about the debate about defense that is taking place among conservatives, but also about whats happening to the defense budget. I want to thank our distinguished panelists and our guests here today for joining us to try to get a better handle on the problem.
I especially thank Ken Blackwell and my colleague Stuart Butler for joining us to discuss this critical issue. Ken Blackwell, who will be speaking first, is currently Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment at the Family Research Council and a visiting fellow at the American Civil Rights Union and serves on the Board of Directors of the Club for Growth and the National Taxpayers Union. Twenty-two years ago, he worked at The Heritage Foundation as an analyst. Since then, hes had a distinguished career serving as the Mayor of Cincinnati, Treasurer and Secretary of State for the great state of Ohio, Undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, to name just a few of his many noteworthy positions.
Ken Blackwell received the U.S. Department of State Superior Honor Award for his work on human rights for Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and Bill Clinton. He is currently a contributing editor and columnist for TownHall.com and a public affairs commentator for the Salem radio network. We have asked him to address what providing for the common defence means to social conservatives, and we are very pleased to have him here today.
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The Common Defense: What It Means to Conservatives
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