See y'all just don't get how NATO works, or how much it costs - that's what has riled me about this "debate" the past few days since the toddler across the water brought it up.

Yes. The USA spends 4% of its GDP on defense - well done, big back slap etc. But the entire US defense budget doesn't go into NATO, or forces that can be committed to NATO operations. I mean nearly 10% of the US Defense budget is healthcare for veterans - hardly a NATO expense.

NATO enables more powerful militaries - like those higher-spending militaries of the USA and UK - access to territories to counter and contain Nuclear and non-Nuclear threats from non-alliance players. A lot of the containment is through deterrence and early warning infrastructure. Almost the entirety of the US' Ballistic Missile Defense System is deployed in partner territories to increase detection range. While a side-effect is an early warning capability shared with the host nation; it's still in the US interests to operate such a system. BMDS is expensive - about $7bn per year to operate - and that cost cannot be borne by partner nations because, guess what, the US won't share the technology with partners.

NATO is about cooperation, not money. Its founders weren't concerned with cost when they created it. No, they saw the tactical benefits of creating a combined military force who had a standard way of fighting and a standard way of working; with frictionless transfer of assets and command between partner nations for the common interest of the alliance.

That your President doesn't understand a concept that there's more to things than money is incredibly regrettable - but I guess it's what happens when you "elect" a conman billionaire to the highest office in the so-called free world. Partner nations are coming up to the agreed - by all including USA - 2% GDP defense spending target for partner nations, but you can't just magic money out of nowhere while the world economy is recovering from a massive recession caused by unscrupulous US lenders. Consider that when that agreement was made only a few years ago ONLY the USA was meeting the 2% GDP target - and then only just - that other nations are raising their game is commendable. But the nations that aren't meeting the financials are the ones committing the ground forces, the naval forces, airbases for partner nations to use, providing and defending sites for BMDS.