November 4, 2016

Dear Next President,

With over 1,429,995 active troops on duty fighting for our country, this ranks us with having the second largest active army in the world. To sustain this army it requires regular funding, which takes up almost 50 percent in tax revenues. With having the second largest army in the world, you think that would be enough to defend our country. No the government continues to spend unnecessary money on the military. The government continues to enlarge the army, which requires even more money and regular funding. We could spend it on something else more vital to our country like education.

The government currently spends almost six hundred billion dollars on the military and another six hundred and fifty billion dollars on helping sustain the army. That is over 1.2 trillion dollars being spent on the military; in 2015 we spent a total of 1.3 trillion dollars on military alone. We are almost about to surpass the last year total by probably 100 million. Sure North Korea looks threatening right now with all that military power, but our army is about eight times larger than theirs.

Now instead of spending that much money on our military, we can spend it on other government departments. We can cut the military funding by 20 percent and spend the 200 million dollars onto something else, like healthcare or education. This can help us out by having more people get better education and get productive jobs to help better our American economy. If we don’t really have any departments to fund we can spend that money on the national debt and instead of having it increase all the time we can decrease it.

I understand that we need to have a large military to fight in all the conflicts in the world. But according to www.defense.gov we have about 1.5 million active troops right now fighting in various countries. Don’t forget we also have a standing army that has even more people ready and waiting until they can be released into battle and fight for their country. So I think we have plenty of military firepower and if we do get into a major war, we can just increase the funding for military again. But for right now that money can be put into better use for other departments.

The government right now has been spending too much on the military and it’s time to stop. We can decrease the funding and give it to other major areas in need of that crucial funding. We could also pay off some of the national debt we are in. The U.S having the second largest army in the world does not need to get even more powerful. You being the president of the United States of America can so something about this, so consider this letter as one of the things you will do to our country.

Thank You

Joseph C.