I support Gates's defense budget proposal as a first step. I hope that eventually we will see actual cuts to defense spending, as compared to a 4% increase, but I understand that one has to ease into these things - witness the opposition in the House to a reallocation of resources even when combined with a budgetary increase. Cutting funding for expensive programs that don't address the current realities our military faces and using those funds for programs that do is a good initial measure.

That being said, though I may be an adult I cannot help also being a boy. Laser planes? Multiple Kill Vehicles (AKA hovering murderbots of doom)? Weapons in Space? The F-22? Do you have any idea how COOL the F-22 is?! So cool! It's stealthy, fast as hell, it can quickly and stably take off and land vertically (So can the Harrier but the British designed that; we can one-up them if we do it better!), it can detect radar from other sources over 250 miles away, it can overload and break enemy sensors and disable cruise missiles, it can behave sort of like a WiFi hub - which will be useful when it coordinates other planes' actions like an AWACS, and I'm sure it has even COOLER capabilities that are classified! For Pete's sake, when a wing containing F-22s underwent their first Operational Readiness Inspection they scored a simulated kill-ratio of 221-0!

BEST. PLANE. EVER.

I realize we're going to get 187 of them but halting the program still hurts my deeply ingrained (What kind of boy didn't read Tom Clancy at age 13? A sissy, that's what kind.) love of awesome gear.

Yes, I support cuts to defense spending. I hope others on my side of the debate can admit to themselves that some of the stuff we're giving up is TOTALLY AWESOME.

I mean, laser planes. Seriously.