September 28, 2000

World's Largest Military Wants More Money
Clinton Predicts GOP Dissension Over Hate Crimes Law
Parents to Politicians: Leave the Parenting to Us

World's Largest Military Wants More Money

The nation's senior military commanders told Congress yesterday that the armed services needed a significant increase in spending in the years ahead, suggesting amounts that would exceed what has been proposed by either major presidential candidate and consume a large part of the projected budget surplus, according to The New York Times.

Some were skeptical: "For the record, let me just say that at $305 billion, the U.S. military budget is more than five times larger than Russia's, the second largest spender," said Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.). She added that it is 22 times larger than "the combined spending of the seven countries traditionally identified by the Pentagon as our most likely adversaries, those being Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria."

The Cato Handbook for Congress recommends that it reduce the budget authorization for national defense by $100 billion and has some ideas on where to cut. It suggests that Congress restructure U.S. forces to reflect the American geostrategic advantage of virtual invulnerability to invasion by deeply cutting ground forces (Army and Marines) while retaining a larger percentage of the Navy and Air Force and terminate all peacekeeping and overseas presence missions.

In "A Hollow Military Debate," Director of Defense Policy Studies Ivan Eland writes that "if unnecessary commitments were eliminated, the already bloated U.S. military budget could be reduced significantly without excessively stressing the armed forces and their personnel."

Clinton Predicts GOP Dissension Over Hate Crimes Law

President Clinton accused Republican congressional leaders yesterday of sidestepping his hate-crime legislation because they fear it would tear the GOP apart, according to The Washington Post.

"We all know what the deal is here," Clinton said. "The Republican majority does not want a bill that explicitly provides hate crimes protections for gay Americans. And I think they think it will split their base."

Although "hate crimes" may be heinous, David Kopel asks in the Cato Handbook for Congress, “What is the point of enacting a federal statute to deal with criminals who are already being punished as severely as possible at the state level?”

New York University law professor James B. Jacobs discussed hate crime legislation at the Cato policy forum "Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics." Video of the event can be seen at the Cato Web site.

Parents to Politicians: Leave the Parenting to Us

A front page feature in The New York Times today explains that parents feel censoring movies is their job, not politicians'. In interviews with parents of adolescents in Westland, a middle-class suburb of Detroit that, a strong sentiment was prevalent that it was their responsibility -- and not that of the president, Congress or even Hollywood -- to filter what reaches their children. The candidates, they suggested, should save their breath for the economy and health care.

In "Rated V for Violence: Legislation Stamping Warning Labels on Electronic Media May Cause Constitutional Sticker Shock," Visiting Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies Ronald D. Rotunda warns about government censorship, including the Media Violence Labeling Act of 2000, now pending in the Senate, which is on a collision course with the Supreme Court. Introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, the bill would require manufacturers and producers of audio and visual products -- including movies, video games and music -- to label "violent content in audio and visual media products and services." Rotunda writes that "even though this bill is in the early phases of consideration by the Senate, it raises implications so troubling it is important to evaluate it now."

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