One area where President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney clearly disagree is defense spending. The president wants less, Romney wants more. But the difference in their approaches is about more than money.
When Romney looks at the future, he sees a series of threats: from unrest in the Middle East to a nuclear North Korea to what he sees as a defiant Russia.
Speaking to veterans in Virginia's Fairfax County last month, Romney blamed the Obama administration for cuts that will go into effect unless Congress and the president act.
"And the idea of cutting our military commitment by a trillion dollars over this decade is unthinkable, and devastating," Romney said. "And when I become president of the United States, we will stop it. I will not cut our commitment to our military."
For example, Romney sees the Pentagon's plans to reduce the size of the Army and Marines as threats to national security. While the Obama budget calls for shrinking the size of the Army and Marines by 100,000 troops, Romney proposes adding 100,000.
Romney wants to set a floor for defense spending: 4 percent of the gross domestic product should go to the military, he says. That's about where it is now, but in coming years, the president's budget would take it below 3 percent.
For Obama, Changing Priorities
In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, Obama said that money going to the military is now needed elsewhere.
Paying For The Romney Plan
The Romney campaign says ramping up spending to 4 percent of GDP on defense would cost about $1 trillion more than Obama's current budget. But Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says it would cost more. Even if the government spent eight years getting to 4 percent of GDP, it would amount to an additional $1.8 trillion in spending. If the U.S. reached that level sooner, it would cost something to the tune of $2 trillion.