Video: Why does our military need the best, really?

President Obama certainly likes to talk a big game about “investing” in our national future, but, in his infinite magnanimousness, he seems more inclined toward a particular type of government “investment.” The green jobs, bailouts, and food stamps that he supports (on behalf of Americans’ welfare, of course!) are more high-risk political gambles on the taxpayer dime than safe bets with reliable returns. Conspicuously absent from the president’s “winning the future” rhetoric is our military — at least, in the context of funneling them free money on behalf of special interests. Instead, the President has decided that a ‘leaner, more efficient, more agile’ military is in the United States’ best interests… rather than, you know, a leaner, more efficient Department of Agriculture or Education or Energy, because heaven knows there’s no waste, fraud, nor abuse to be had in those departments, right?

While total defense spending has been steadily increasing for over a decade, defense spending as a portion of the federal budget and as a percentage of GDP has been buried under the ongoing explosion of entitlement spending. But, of course, instead of bravely confronting the incoming debt crisis by attacking the core problem–by reforming the entitlement and welfare programs that consume that vast majority of our budget–defense spending instead became a political football subject to Congressional whimsy, and those “automatic cuts” are already taking place:

The Defense Department’s core fiscal 2013 budget at $525.4 billion reflects the already announced one percent reduction from the current year, which comes from reducing Army and Marine personnel and ending or limiting purchases of expensive new equipment. It spells out in more detail the how the administration plans to cut future expenses related to the personnel reductions, by establishing commissions to take on the controversial tasks of reducing or closing military bases and updating military retirement programs.

One percent might not seem like much, but, in the first of a three-part video series, the Heritage Foundation provides an eye-opening, technical lesson as to why it would be a wise move for the government to focus a little more of its “investing” prowess into maintaining and bettering the most elite fighting force in the world. Our troops face real, evolving challenges every day, and unlike Congress, terrorists don’t mess around: