Budget cutting should start with Pentagon

Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $650 billion Pentagon budget ("House targets 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal," July 9). Am I in a time warp? I thought that it was necessary to cut back on spending in order to cut the deficit.

Then I read this: "The Defense Department is the only government agency that will receive a double-digit increase in its budget for fiscal year 2012." What gives? Why is the War Department funding being increased when social services are being slashed?

Unless Congress gets real and supports the People's Budget, our economy is sure to collapse. Fund programs that enhance human needs, and cut the military budget by a minimum of 25 percent as a starter. No one benefits from the overseas wars, and the troops fare the worst. Bring them home if for no other reason that we can't afford these empire-building exercises.

Max Obuszewski, Baltimore