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That’s all well and good, if you have a bottomless treasury. But as things stand now, the US will have to cancel Social Security, Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid, and slash Defense by a good 50%.

Yep.

When you have to choose between Welfare Benefits and National Survival, you should choose Welfare Benefits every time.

Russia ruined its navy after the collapse of the Soviet Union by trying to keep too many ships afloat. It ended up with rusting fleets incapable of service.

Russia has the luxury of not NEEDING a Navy for its national survival. In spite of the collapse of the Russian Navy, the U.S. has no intention of posing any threat to Russian maritime traffic and Russia is so self-sufficient in oil that it actually EXPORTS the stuff.

The U.S. on the other hand, is dependent on open sea lanes for national survival.

Without open sea lanes, the imported U.S oil supply comes to a halt and so does America.

The first Pacific War over the issue of foreign oil supplies was fought between Japan and the U.S. between 1941 and 1945. (Japan was desperate for imported oil)

The second Pacific War over foreign oil supplies will be between China and the U.S. sometime in the unpredictable future. (Both the U.S. and China will be desperate for imported oil)

China’s 2009 Crude Oil Imports Advance to Record ..... China, the world’s second-largest energy consumer, increased crude oil purchases to a record last year to meet rising demand ... Crude oil imports reached 203.8 million metric tons last year, or 4.1 million barrels a day

The deciding factor of what you build or do not build has to be what the Chinese are building for that future conflict.

China military build-up seems U.S.-focused: Mullen

Otherwise, when the balloon goes up, China will win, the U.S. will lose, and the U.S. will then become a nuclear-armed economic pigmy, too dangerous to invade, which, however, China can starve at its leisure as the Chines Navy will control the world's sea lanes.

And, no, Social Security, Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid will no longer exist.

I agree that China remains the biggest threat. And the USN has treated it as such since the 1990s. However, in his wisdom, W. Bush opened the door to India, and did much to convince them that China is as much or more a threat to them than it is to us.

In turn, India is now going whole hog in building up its naval and armed forces. But this divides Chinese attention, at a time when their economic miracle is rapidly grinding to a halt.

One sub concept that I’ve seen proposed to counter the Chinese threat are prepositioned, small, modular, littoral ships, that can be relatively quickly assembled if the mainland decides to do an openly D-Day style landing in Taiwan. An armada to defeat an armada.

In such a dense missile, aircraft and ship environment, an aircraft carrier fleet would be rather vulnerable and inadequate. But in reserve, outside of the primary conflict zone, it could lend huge amounts of support with far less risk.