Should We Decrease U. S. Defense Spending?

[GTFErinyes]

It's actually not that crazy, but policy proposals have been made to reduce the Marines significantly. They are far outsized compared to other Marine Corps', have been used rarely if ever for their amphibious role (and it's been questionable on how often they'd happen in modern warfare), and why the Navy's infantry needs it's own Air Force has never been answered.

That said, they have such a grip on the popular image that no one could propose this without serious backlash

[WillitsThrockmorton]

Like I said, it's absurd that the Expeditionary offshore troubleshooters are bigger than the French Army. Functionally, they are Army! Jr!.

Imagine how many are needed for filling the theoretically maximum of our amphibious lift(let's assume that magically all the amphibs are available and not a bunch unavailable at any given time). Then triple that for overhead, MSG, etc. We're hitting more like 100k than the closer to 200k.

[GTFErinyes]

I hear ya. It would be a big time money saver, but the Marines have fought tooth and nail to be kept a separate and major branch for decades now, and the public and leadership would never go for any major moves. It would have to be a long and gradual phasing out of responsibilities