On the other hand, the triumph of common sense on the F-22 does little for taxpayers. An under-reported quirk of the Senate measure: new F-22s would have been paid for by cutting other defense spending, not by spending more in total. The F-22 outcome should not distract us from the reality that the defense budget, at $534 billion not including funding for numerous conflicts, is still way too high. In real dollars, that's more than the U.S. spent at any time in the Cold War. And most of the spending has little to do with counterterrorism or the ongoing wars.

There are plenty of other wasteful programs in the Defense Authorization bill that would not survive the scrutiny that stopped the F-22. In the long term, the way to save money on defense is by adopting a new grand strategy of restraint, which would in turn lessen the need for an enormous military and countless other platforms that are nearly as costly and unnecessary as the F-22.