Rumsfeld: Defense Cuts Put America at Risk for Another Attack

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been expressing some grave thoughts to deficit hawks willing to put the brunt of the nation's much needed spending cuts on defense. In a recent interview with Human Events, Rumsfeld said:

“The Department of Defense is not what’s causing the debt and the deficit.  It’s the entitlement programs. If we make that mistake, we’re doomed to suffer another attack of some kind, and our intelligence will be less strong and less effective.'”

Rumsfeld's remarks from the Human Events interview released Friday, echo his statements at the “9/11, A Decade Later: Lessons Learned and Future Challenges,” event Thursday night at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. Maureen Mackey of the Fiscal Times reports that at the event, which was co-sponsored by the Jewish Policy Center, Rumsfeld declared:

“'The people who are running around saying they want to cut the Pentagon [budget] don’t know what they’re talking about,' Rumsfeld said.

'The money isn’t there.'

Instead, it’s 'entitlements,' he said, that must be targeted for spending cuts in order to get this country’s fiscal house in order."

Rumsfeld has pushed that spending on the military is low compared with historical averages, noting that military spending from Eisenhower through LBJ topped 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP), far less than today’s 4.7%. President Obama has already imposed $400 billion in military cuts, with another $800 billion to follow if congressional leaders do not agree on a debt-reduction deal.

Human Events' Jason Mattera's full interview with Donald Rumsfeld: