Make Reasonable Cuts in Military/Defense Spending and Allocate More Funding to Education and Scientific Research

We spend $1.2 trillion per year, or 7% of GDP and 30% of the total budget, on our military. We can easily halve this amount: the U.S. already accounts for half of the world’s military spending. Our NATO and other allies make up nearly another 25 percent. Even if we halve spending, we and our allies would still spend at least three or four times as much as all of the countries that could even remotely be considered threats to our security. In short, no one is going to conquer us even if we halve our military expenditures to a still enormous half trillion dollars per year. The rest of us cannot stand back and allow less social security, higher healthcare costs, fewer student loans, and less educated children. It's time to address the trillion-dollar elephant in the room.