This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, December 17, 2010. I'm Caleb Brown.

Two Wars, a military mission adrift, a sluggish economy in record federal debt and spending something has to give.

Christopher Prouble Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute argues that more careful military budgeting and an honest reckoning of the military's purpose should be on the front burner for

the new Congress.

I think a lot of us are waiting to see what the election of 2010 means for foreign policy in 2011 because most of the people

who were elected did not have to take a position on foreign policy in order to get elected and since they didn't have to most chose

not to.

So it's a little hard to tell what their instincts are.

My argument is, and I think others agree with me, that if the impulse behind

the Tea Party movement broadly defined is limited government, some variation thereof,

then it's hard to have big government abroad and small government at home.

It's inconsistent philosophically, it's also expensive, and that's the other big issue

is the deficit and spending.

And I think that there are definitely some new members who are really committed to deficit reduction and then there are some more experienced

members who are going to be moving into chairmanships or other senior positions who are really committed to trying to get the budget under

control.

Specifically with regard to authorizations that have taken place for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those were taking advantage of some budget tricks

that presumably somebody like Paul Ryan in the house

would want to do away with.

Right, I mean I think there's been, for a few years there's been kind of growing anxiety

or resistance to folding a lot of things into the so-called supplementals or emergency spending and the abuse of the term

...