The US is withdrawing from the world and cutting our military while countries like Russia, Iran and China are filling the void Obama has left. Look at the drastic cuts to the military that Obama and Hagel are instituting in the face of an expansionist Russia, a China that is ramping up military spending exponentially and an Iran that is feverishly working on nuclear weapons. And what are we doing? Trying to figure out how to get “transgender” people into the US military.

* Last week, Obama’s Air Force secretary announced that the Air Force will eliminate the entire A-10 Warthog close air support fleet and the U-2 spy plane fleet, and significantly reduce the number of F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon fighters, and MQ-1 drones.

This needs to be put in proper context. There is no replacement for the A-10’s mission contemplated or on the horizon. And the F-15 is till the Air Force’s most numerous air superiority fighter–especially since Obama cancelled the production of the F-22 Raptor during his first term in office.

Also contemplated by the Obama administration:

* The retirement of up to 80 more aircraft beyond a nearly 500 already scheduled for the chopping block.

* The elimination of the entire KC-10 tanker fleet.

* Deferred upgrades to the Global Hawk and retirement of the Global Hawk Block 40.

* Slowed purchases of the F-35 multi-role fighter. (This is the primary aircraft that the Air Force contemplates as a replacement for the F-16s that Obama wants to cut too.)

* A 20 percent reduction in the number of combat air patrols by Predator and Reaper drones. (This would obviously directly impact operations designed to target Jihadists.)

* Efforts to invest in the combat rescue helicopter force, the next-generation JSTARS aircraft and a replacement for the aging T-38 trainer aircraft would also have to be reconsidered.

On the Navy side, the situation is just as bad or even worse.

The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) told Congress last week that the US Navy needs 450 ships to meet its mission requirements.

How many does it have?

284.

But the Obama defense department has actually used a cynical sleight of hand to boost that number magically to 289 overnight.

How? They added unarmed hospital ships and unarmed, civilian-manned pre-positioning ships to the count for the first time in the US Navy’s history!

But here’s the even worse part: Currently the Navy has 11 aircraft carriers in the fleet. Even the most lenient analyses indicate that the US Navy needs 12 carriers to perform its mission requirements and some analyses even say we need 15 carriers.

Nevertheless, Obama is about to cut our Navy down to 10 carriers.

How?

By mothballing and likely scrapping a nuclear powered carrier halfway into its service life.

The USS George Washington (CVN-73) was commissioned in 1992. Her designed service life from the start was 50 years. She was scheduled to undergo a mid-life modernization and refueling next year, a process that takes 4 years.

To cut the defense budget, Obama plans on getting rid of the Washington rather than performing the long-planned update work.

This is a gross example of mismanagement. The American people invested heavily in the Washington when she was built and commissioned. She was designed to serve America for 50 years. Obama is pilfering that investment.

* Obama has proposed the elimination of the US Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missile program, with no replacement on the horizon. By cutting aircraft carriers and cruise missiles, Obama is stripping the Navy of the lion’s share of its offensive capability.

Beyond service-specific cuts, there are also these additional cuts planned for by Obama:

* Limits to pay raises for our military heroes.

* Reductions in the basic housing allowance, which enables military families to find good places to live.

* Reductions in commissary subsidies, which will essentially put them out of business altogether, forcing military families, who are often already on food stamps, to go off-base to shop for groceries.

* “Manage” Tricare costs by requiring greater cost-sharing. In other words, make soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guardsmen and Marines shoulder a greater burden of their health care costs.

* Reductions in funding for military family support programs. “Mom or Dad get sent overseas to war for the FOURTH time? Too bad, so sad…good luck with that.”

Obama and Hagel claim that they are doing all this in the name of “fiscal responsibility,” but there are some inconvenient facts you should know about Obama’s priorities.

For instance, did you know that in the first 5 years of the Obama administration, the US government spent a record $5.3 TRILLION on welfare programs?

Did you know that today there are 48 million people–many not even Americans–getting food stamps from the US government–far more than ever before?

And did you know that, even with the drastic defense budget cuts proposed by Obama and Hagel, the federal budget will still grow by $200 billion? The only thing being truly cut is defense.

Meanwhile, Russia is invading its neighbors, China is spending up to 15% of its rapidly growing GDP on defense every year, Iran continues to enrich uranium and sponsor Jihadist terrorism and Al Qaeda is operating in more nations worldwide than ever before.

Obama’s priorities are clearly out of touch with America and will leave us vulnerable for years to come.