I here you Tom, and yet the majority of the realisitc defense spending roll backs involve savings from less interventionist policies, winding down Afghanistan and Iraq troop levels, and some focused acquistioin cuts. "Downsize the military" is a phased in item that would wreak havok with the economy no more than "downsize the medical care industry" and less than "not doing anything other than kicking the can down the road" until the debt is unsustainable as a percentage of GDP. Since US national defense spending accounts for about 42% of world defense spending and that we spend more than the vast majority of other countries combined, its hard for me not to see this is one of the areas that we will need to cut if we really want to get a handle on the national debt. Given that I work with DOD civilians every day, I am sympathetic to complaints about pay freezes, but if inflation is nearly non existant why shouldn't DoD pay be frozen in an era where you have a very secure job with pay levels that arguable rose during the recession and overall size of the federal civilian employee job pool also rose? 2% is not a lot, but it is a statistically significant number and a non-permanant pay index freeze could be part of a larger package.