Many commentators have complained about the damage the president's proposed new budget would do to our national prosperity. Less has been said about the effect it will have on something far more important: our national character.

AEI’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies will host Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter for a timely discussion of U.S. defense budgets, of the changing strategic landscape in the U.S. and the force that this landscape demands.

Conventional wisdom holds that the Navy and Air Force escaped the budget drill mostly intact while the Army endured the bulk of cuts. But the truth is that all of the services are shrinking and aging under the Obama budget.

Many commentators have complained about the damage Obama's new proposed budget would do to our national prosperity. Less has been said about the effect it will have on something far more important: our national character.

It’s hardly a surprise that the president’s narrowly focused plan falls short on the fiscal front, with the debt projected to weigh in at a staggering 76 percent of annual GDP in 2022 and poised to rise further in subsequent decades.

The Administration’s growing gap between the newest defense strategy and budget makes more sense when viewed in the context of the administration’s domestic priorities. Just as President Obama wants to raise taxes on some Americans in order to pay for others, the administration is weakening America’s military strength in order to pay for expansive domestic federal programs.

Barack Obama’s presidency has had profoundly negative consequences for our national security. From debilitating cuts in defense budgets, to gutting national missile defense efforts, to his unwillingness to acknowledge a continuing war against terrorism, to his inability to stem the nuclear proliferation threats posed by North Korea and Iran....the picture is bleak.

At this event, we will discuss the Obama administration's FY 2013 defense budget and the broader context behind its new strategic guidance.