A hugely significant Reuters/Ipsos poll released today revealed that, when asked which programs they prefer to cut to reduce the rising budget deficit, that Americans dramatically prefer cuts to the military over other options.

A solid majority, 51%, backed cutting military spending, strongly ahead of the runner-up, Medicare and Medicaid spending, which was only 28%. The US military, the most expensive in human history, is projected to grow precipitously in the years ahead.

But with the economy in trouble and the military’s “emergency” spending requests bringing their annual budget ever closer to $1 trillion, the question is increasingly being asked: how can America possibly sustain this?

The short answer is that it cannot, but the ability of Congress to even consider stalling the growth, let alone to actually cut the spending, is very much in doubt. At the very least, Congressmen will no longer be able to claim that their refusal to make such cuts has anything to do with popular opinion.