How the American military economy promotes bipartisan support for large defense budgets

The Republican Party’s most recent Congressional budget envisions $6.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, but leaves the country’s annual defense budget of nearly $600 billion relatively untouched. Why does Congress continue to allocate such large sums of money towards America’s defense, especially in a time of increasing deficits? Rebecca U. Thorpe writes that since World War II, government investment in the military has primed the economic pump for regions in the US which now predominantly vote for the Republican Party. This, in combination with the American people’s relative insulation from the effects of war, and their perceptions about external threats, makes it difficult for Congress to downsize defense budgets.