Defense spending in context

It's thanksgiving and I don't feel like working today, and I'm getting all worked up over the news.

So the supercommittee failed.  The thing that irks me is the response by Leon Panetta, the secretary of defense, who is basically saying if we cut military spending then the world will end, and he won't do it.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2016829870_militarycuts23.html

Suddenly faced with the increased prospect of such cuts, Pentagon officials said Tuesday that they were pushing back at Congress and not even planning for the spending reductions, which are to take effect in January 2013.

The cuts that are to go into affect beginning in 2013 are $500B over 10 years.  $500B sounds like a lot of money, but it as usual, no-one in the media wants to put that into context, so here is some:

This chart shows historical department of defense spending, in constant 2005 dollars, since 2001, with estimates going forward.  The estimate out to 2013 is from the white house's budget office, and after that I straight-lined it to 2023.  The dark blue line is me phasing in a $500B cut over 10 years.  To me, that doesn't look all that severe, particularly since we are removing ourselves from two war zones (Iraq and Afghanistan).  Our current spending is over $600B PER YEAR.  So this is less than a 10% cut from current levels.

Now from the perspective of a Keynesian, this is not the time to be cutting government spending.  This will result in active military and military contractors losing their jobs, and a suppliers of equipment to the military having to cut people and capital investment.  I'm ok with that, since we need to always be asking ourselves what the optimal allocation of tax dollars looks like.  I think there are better things we can do with our tax dollars than fund a gargantuan military presence that is essentially allowing the rest of the developed western nations to under-invest in their military because they know that captain america will always swoop in.  I'd like to stop swooping.  I'd like our country to invest in fixing our interstate highway system, modernizing air traffic control, fixing and modernizing our energy grid, our sewer systems, and the thousands of dams in the country that are on the verge of failing catastrophically.

Secondly, who the hell does Panetta think he is!  In this country, elected officials pass budgets that tell the federal government how much to spend and what to spend it on.  If Panetta doesn't want any checks on his power, maybe he should apply for a job in the Egyptian military.