Plan to boost budget sparks debate on defense spending

close

Video

Plan to boost budget sparks debate on defense spending

President calls for an extra $54 billion

DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING "Cost of Freedom Recap" CONTAINS STRONG OPINIONS WHICH ARE NOT A REFLECTION OF THE OPINIONS OF FOX NEWS AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS INVESTMENT ADVICE WHEN MAKING PERSONAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS. IT IS FOX NEWS' POLICY THAT CONTRIBUTORS DISCLOSE POSITIONS THEY HOLD IN STOCKS THEY DISCUSS, THOUGH POSITIONS MAY CHANGE. READERS OF "Cost of Freedom Recap" MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN INVESTMENT DECISIONS.

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PLAN TO BOOST MILITARY BUDGET BY $54B FUELING NEW DEBATE OVER DEFENSE SPENDING

Steve Forbes: Barely beginning. It's not take to take where spending was five or six years ago and the Air Force is run down, the average aircraft 27 years, Navy the smallest, Army is run down and equipment around the world. You look around the world, the world is falling apart. We have to do the rebuild and do it fast.

John Tamny: No, we don't, the 54 billion is way too much. That would render the U.S. the 7th largest military-end inspector in the world. We don't have a problem of spending too much on a military. We're spending too much on a military that has too much globally that is nothing to do with our national defense. Cut defense spending and defend the U.S.

Rich Karlgaard: Yeah, and we don't even know what china's is. Look, I agree with Steve, that the threats in the world are changing and they're becoming increasingly technologically driven. We won the race to the atom bomb, and we won the Cold War for the same reason and investing in military and we can't afford to lose that race to China or Russia.

Bruce Japsen: Part of me thinks this is merely tough talk by Donald to blunt the criticism he's facing over his ties to Russia, but more broadly on some of this stuff, it appears he's banging the drums for war and same time they're proposing a 30 percent cut in the budget of the State Department, unless we're going to get the Trump and Kushner family to…

Elizabeth MacDonald: I think the president is not talking about banging the drums through war, but peace through strength and the GDP is a third of what the spending was in the 50's. And the chart you saw, fastest drawdown in decades. What happened in the Obama administration, the Obama reset that didn't work, the flawed assumptions about containing Isis, North Korea flawed assumptions. Flawed assumptions about Iran. I'm with Rich and Steve, the technological capability of our enemies is increasing, we need to increase spending.

Sabrina Schaeffer: Well, right, that's a good thing and it's important to keep in mind that this is actually only about 3 percent higher than the Obama administration's last proposed budget for military spending.

NEW FOCUS ON OBAMACARE REPLACEMENT AS PRES TRUMP BACKS HEALTHCARE TAX CREDITS

Sabrina Schaeffer: Absolutely, David. I think that the key to remember here, we want to keep moving the ball down the field in the right direction and going towards tax credits is doing that. It's giving people more ownership over their health care dollars. They're a little too ideological. All of the replacement plans out there, most of them, at least, include a universal tax credit for people making 3 to 400 percent below the poverty lines. If we're going to get hung up on that as a new entitlement, I think we're losing sight of the real goals of the game.

John Tamny: No, I don't. I think he misses the point. For my day-to-day, it's more crucial to are me top a laptop and Wi-Fi, we don't need a tax credit, and we go into the market and buy it. Why do we act as health care is some sort of different good? It's a market good like anybody else; President Trump should free people to buy what they need.

Steve Forbes:  The Democrats confused insurance coverage to access to health care and affordable health care; we need to more in a free market direction. I don't know why in terms of health insurance we don't do with the-- or what we do with food. Food stamps and the government doesn't run agriculture as they used to in Russia and China and starve millions to death. They'll have free markets in health care, and safety nets for people with I think so this like having insurance funds for people who truly can't get insurance, but let the free market work.

Elizabeth MacDonald: You know, I kind of like it, I hear Sabrina says. And when you looked at the bronze plan, you looked at catastrophic, chaos insurance. The tax credits, I think Sabrina is right, don't let the purpose be the enemy of the food. Earned income tax credit is improper and somewhat fraudulent. A lot of money goes out the door. I hear what conservatives are saying, tax credits immediate money out the door and abused tax credits, a lot of fraud there. I think what rand Paul is saying, sounds like the way to go.

Bruce Japsen: The problem with all of this, they've had seven years to monkey around with this and still don't have a plan. The tax credit the conservatives aren't wild about, it would act like a gift car and go back to that bronze statistic. Most the people who buy bronze get a subsidy so they're not paying that.

Rich Karlgaard: Yes, it is, but I agree with Sabrina and Liz that we can't let perfect is the enemy of good. We're not going to get a peer-free market system the first time around. Let's remember who elected Trump, it wasn't just free market conservatives. You know, it was people who want to put Americans first and they came from many of the poorer states and the devastated communities. So we've got to get something through that moves health care in the right direction and it's not going to be perfect this time.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMNET MOVES CLOSER TO ENDING VISA-FREE TRAVEL FOR AMERICANS

Steve Forbes: We may particular a little hit, David. Theirs suffer the most. We don't allow for visa-free for five countries out of those in Europe. It's legitimate to know who you're coming from, what country, if you have proper programs there, to make sure bad guys aren't travelling through to us. And they'll back off; they need the tourism from the U.S.
John Tamny: Of course, when you block people into the U.S., they're going to retaliate. It hurts us both and I don't think it makes us safer.

Rich Karlgaard: Yeah, and you have an improving American economy. Western Europe has become kind of a Disneyland for adults and Americans like to travel there and see the way life once was and Europe would be shooting itself in the foot if they tried to stop it or halt it.

Bruce Japsen:  Well, yeah, I mean, here is the thing. This whole thing, the travel ban, it wasn't thought through and you're going to get more of this unless they stop and less until they stop making these decisions in a vacuum. It's bad, we don't want this, and they’re our allies.

Sabrina Schaeffer: Not exactly blackmail. I think the EU is going to back down as well. I think we have to keep in mind every action that we have has an equal and opposite reaction and we have to keep in mind this requires some diplomacy. At the same time, I think everybody needs to come abandon. Every country has the right to determine who comes in and out of the country and we don't have the same views. That's okay, we in America have a different set of views than in Japan or Germany and that's the way it is.

Elizabeth MacDonald: Because I’m a radical moderate union, and the European Union is like watching crabgrass grow. I don't get why they would do this.

STOCK PICKS
EMAC: TRGP
John Tamny: GHL