This is a chart from Andrew Sullivan’s blog (I’m not sure where it originally came from) that shows why the claim that cuts to defense spending will hurt our ability to defend ourselves (and against whom, exactly? The last time this nation was attacked was in 1941):

We spend about 50% more than the next ten countries combined. The next biggest spender is China and they spend 12% of what we spend. The defense cuts included in the sequestration deal, which Republicans and the Obama administration are claiming will do enormous damage to our national security, amount to less than $50 billion. We would still outspend the next ten countries combined by about $200 billion a year. This is just mindless fear-mongering, a marketing campaign to keep transferring hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars needlessly to defense contractors.