Would Cutting the Military Budget Threaten Our Security?

It depends how we define our priorities.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, at 4:19 PM ET

Here are some numbers to help you decide whether it really would be dangerous to take another slash at the military budget, as the debt-ceiling deal (and other fiscal politics) might soon require.

In 1985, at the height of President Ronald Reagan's Cold War arms build-up, the Pentagon budget (adjusted for inflation, to make it comparable in today's dollars) amounted to $574 billion.