Four Percent for Freedom: Maintaining Robust National Security Spending

Publication Date: April 2007

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): James Jay Carafano; Baker Spring; Mackenzie M. Eaglen

Research Area: Military and defense

Keywords: National security; defense budget; hollow force; entitlement reform

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Congress and the President should commit to spending 4 percent of GDP on national defense even after any drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan or Iraq, both to prevent a recurrence of the "hollow force" and to meet immediate modernization needs, and reform the major entitlement programs that threaten the budget and the economy over the long term.