Another 160 jobs and more defense infrastructure — gone. Because we can’t afford sufficient national defense when we have to fund massive entitlement programs and pork barrel spending. Constitutional responsibilities be damned when there are professional victim classes and other get-out-the-vote constituencies to reward with “free” government money.

The details of Gates’ plan, announced Thursday, raised red flags among some area leaders and regional advocates, who argued that Gates didn’t offer enough specifics about how the cutbacks would save money or improve national defense.

These cutbacks aren’t about improving national defense. Just like eliminating the F-22 wasn’t about improving national defense. And limiting missile defense isn’t about improving national defense. It’s about leftists slowly weakening that evil United States military.

Remember those old slogans, “I’d like to live in a world where our schools are fully funded and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale?” Or something to that effect? Those people are now in power, and useful idiots like Robert Gates provide human shields for their disastrous policies.

Leftists will spend the next few years fighting tooth and nail to gut the military because, hey, we need to be fiscally responsible and we can’t afford big defense spending. But we can totally afford extraconstitutional, massive entitlement spending.