They Act Pro-Defense, But Really Just Use It To Limit Domestic Spending

It's fairly obvious that after 8 years of squandering our military resources under George W. Bush, the military is going to have to be re-built.  And conservatives can be counted on to rattle the sabers of defense spending, but apparently they don't necessarily do so with honest intentions:

Conservative groups are hoping to ramp up defense spending as a tool to limit options for a Democratic Congress and president to pass new, and potentially costly, social programs, including health care reform.

They also like the idea of creating an unrealistically high baseline of expectations for defense spending that will allow them to claim President Obama has cut defense spending. ...

There are so many things wrong with this emerging process that it is hard to address the issue concisely. Promoting overspending on defense in order to forestall popular social spending is undemocratic - it creates a false tension between national security and other public policy goals.

The Democrats are already hamstrung on this one with the Blue Dogs' incessant harping on cutting domestic spending and increasing defense spending. Middle Tennessee's Jim Cooper is a Blue Dog. Looks like properly funding both military and domestic programs is going to be tough for the new Democratic government in Washington.