No matter which side of the aisle you are on, money is a big issue, especially with the current financial climate. Obama has been accused of running up spending within the government, especially with his health care reform efforts. So how is he approaching the military budget, which makes up a huge portion of what the U.S. spends tax money on?

He has already cut a number of projects from the bill but he is looking to cut even more. He is especially focused on no-bid contracts that he feels go over budget and waste large amounts of money.

"No longer will we be spending nearly two billion dollars to buy more F-22 fighter jets that the Pentagon says they don't need," says Obama. He continued that, "the notion that we have to waste billions of taxpayer dollars to keep this nation secure."

The new bill for military spending will terminate programs like the Future Combat Systems and the airborne laser- he’ll also drop a plan to build a new presidential helicopter that would cost almost as much as Air Force One.

This brings up a serious issue about how Obama will be handling the financial side of things. It’s good to see that he is making an attempt to cut spending in some ways to make up for all of the spending that he is proposing in the healthcare reforms and all of the money that he’s given to jump start the economy, bail out the banks and get people to buy cars through the Cash for Clunkers program.

So if the U.S. is cutting money to superfluous (we hope) military spending, what else is going on in the military that Obama will need to consider in conjunction?

1.    To send or not to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. If he does decide to do that, whatever spending he’s cutting in these cuts will be dwarfed by the new cost of just mobilizing and outfitting that kind of troop movement.

2.    What to do about the Iraq war. Should he begin a withdrawal (that was part of his campaign platform) and what will that mean for the budget- should he transfer people from Iraq to Afghanistan? Is that even an option?

3.    His administration is currently ramping up its dialogue with China about the future of their cooperation as military entities. What will the state of U.S. military spending have to do with how the two countries integrate their military endeavors?

What should we take from Obama about his drive to cut down military spending? I think it’s largely symbolic. What is he exactly trying to do? Does he count this as a major cost-cutting measure to control government spending, or does he see this as a way to have something to hold up when people say that he is just proposing runaway spending without any regard for how much it will cost the American taxpayer, now or down the line?

Though I like Obama a lot, as I said, I think it’s largely symbolic. Line item cost cutting isn’t going to offset the rest of his spending proposals- and it doesn’t need to- but thanks for the gesture.