Priorities

Ace links a thoughtful piece on why Republicans didn't cave to prevent defense cuts in the sequester.
Why?
Cutting defense spending isn't the only danger we face.
Whether or not President Obama and the Democratic Party are actually trying to alter the relationship between the government and the governed while increasing the scope of the welfare-state, a broad cross-section of voting Americans believe they are--and this group tends to vote for the modern Republican Party. They have sent a group of legislators to Washington to represent their interests, and at a high level of abstraction, these people have told their legislators the following: "The present state of our economy and the trajectory we are on with respect to government spending but especially entitlement spending, represents the most important threat to our long-term national security. We understand the requirements of citizenship and that taxes are the price we pay for a civil society, but we are increasingly uncomfortable with the growth of what government does and provides with the money we give it. We are the Party of a strong and rational national defense, and to that end, we have prioritized the threat. The threat is fiscal insolvency, and it must be addressed. We must retain a strong military, but not at the cost of a weakened country."