University of Virginia Library

Priorities: The Nation...

The Nixon Administration racked up what
may well be its' first significant
accomplishment last week with its new
budget. For the first time in far too long, the
military and defense share of the national
budget has been reduced. In the coming fiscal
year, the Pentagon will be spending less
money in absolute terms as well as consuming
a smaller share of the total national pie.

If he were not heavily committed to
curbing inflation, the President might well
have failed to pull in the reins on defense
spending. But we would like to think that the
nation's tragic need for reordered priorities
motivated the White House to take such
action. For the past decade, a combination of
inefficient spending, Congressional
malfeasance and a distorted picture of the
threats to our national security has caused the
nation to pour numberless billions of dollars
into unneeded weapons; at the same time,
internal decay, the real security menace, has
approached crisis proportions.

In cutting back on defense spending, the
President has taken the first step towards
dealing with the confrontations that beset us.
It is only, however, a first step. The
Administration has made little effort to devise
the innovative methods of applying the
resources to the solution of the domestic
problems. It is probably too much to expect
that the Nixon Administration will be able to
produce the kind of creative and constructive
governmental action that the country needs; it
may well be that governmental action cannot
do the whole job. But the new budget is at
least a start in the right direction. And for
such small favors we should be grateful.