According to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/tables.pdf , over half of discretionary spending is going to defense. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures , we spend more than twice as much on our military as Europe (not just the average country in Europe -- all of the EU, combined! We spend about 10x as much as the UK, for example).

Our budget deficit is about $450 billion. The amount of yearly interest we pay on our national debt is about $450 billion ( http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm ). We need to make extremely massive cuts in spending, and we can't expect to do that without massively cutting the one item that accounts for over half of the discretionary budget.

We can't expect that increased efficiency will cut the cost of our military in half. The reason for the huge cost is that we try to exert influence on far-away places more than other countries do. We have to bite the bullet and realize that we simply cannot afford to remain as powerful as we are today.

Therefore, we must pursue a much less aggressive foreign policy -- by comparison with our current policy, an "isolationist" one. Completely pull out all units from the entire Middle East, and from most other foreign lands. Dramatically cut the size of the military. Over time, this will lead to savings.

We are paying $450 billion a year in interest. We don't have a choice, we have to make drastic cuts. More than half of our discretionary spending is on defense. We are spending $400 billion more than the EU does on defense. The conclusion is forced.