Michael Mattingly ("Conservative Country Is, Will Be Fact of Life," Feb. 1) used phrase "soft-on-defense liberals".

A short reminder is appropriate. The United States spends $450 billion on defense. Using purchasing power parity, the U.S. spends more on military than the next six biggest military spenders; Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China, and Japan combined. If you do the math, you'll notice that the U.S. spends about $6,000 on military per statistical family of four.

Maybe Mattingly's family is wealthy and $6,000 is peanuts for him, but for most families, it is not peanuts.