NPR’s Orwellian World

Kim Holmes / July 06, 2010

George Orwell, it’s time to turn over in your grave.

In Orwell’s world of double talk and upside down reality, few stories can rival one that took place this morning on National Public Radio (NPR).  The show started out with a quote from Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, to the effect that the “biggest threat we have to our national security is our debt.”

True enough. Out of control spending threatens to squeeze the discretionary part of the federal budget, of which defense is a part.  The growing debt will become so large that it will, in the words of Admiral Mullen, undermine “the economy and rob resources needed to protect the population.” By “resources,” he means the armed forces.

Imagine our surprise, then, when the story took a strange twist.  The reporter stated, “At $700 billion a year, defense is the biggest part of the federal budget.” Then he asked what he thought was an “interesting” question:  “If overspending now endangers U.S. security, is it because the country is spending too much on security”? (more…)