In the search for budget cuts, many conservatives are quick to name social programs like Medicare and Social Security as the place to start.

Bring up the military, however, and they go ballistic.

America spends nearly $770 billion a year on defense, 25 percent of the annual U.S. budget, far more than any other country. China, number two on the list, spends one-tenth of what American taxpayers shell out for defense. Iran’s defense budget is a paltry $12 billion.

On the drive to Bozeman, Mont., for the holidays, I passed an installation that typifies what a lot of American defense spending really represents.

Ellsworth Air Force Base, near Rapid City, S.D., is a $40 million-per-year Cold War dinosaur. It once served a legitimate strategic purpose, its B-52 bombers ready to drop nukes on the Soviet Union in the event of a hot war.

It doesn’t say so at the Ellsworth AFB web site, but its mission today is to provide jobs. Along with nearby Mount Rushmore, Ellsworth is a catalyst for the Rapid City economy.

The Defense Department recommended Ellsworth be closed in 2004, reasoning that its mission could be consolidated with other Air Force commands without sacrificing national security, saving hundreds of millions of dollars.

But Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota rode to Ellsworth’s rescue, bragging to voters about his close ties to then President George W. Bush. Ellsworth was saved and, more important, so were those Rapid City jobs.

With a straight face Thune introduced his “Common Sense Budget Reform” bill in 2010, saying, “This legislation is a necessary first step toward reining in Washington’s runaway spending habits, while restoring fiscal accountability to our government.”

Thune’s bill specifically called for an end to Obama’s economic stimulus spending.

We’ve come to expect such hypocrisy from GOP politicians, who claim allegiance to fiscal responsibility until it requires some sacrifice from their constituents.

Thune and Ellsworth also reveal something else about conservatives. They don’t favor government stimulus spending to create jobs unless the jobs created benefit the military industrial complex. Then it’s spare no expense.

So Congress continues to budget for phantom enemies, sophisticated and technologically advanced foes that can exchange bomb for bomb with the U.S. or fight America with high tech weaponry and well trained and armed troops.

That threat disappeared when the Soviet Union imploded more than 20 years ago, yet we still have B-1Bs sitting in South Dakota ready to do … what exactly?

Yes, we need to deter would-be enemies by projecting power. But today we’re fighting fanatic cavemen armed with IEDs, RPGs and C-4, not ICBMs.

A giant, unwieldy conglomeration of air, sea and ground forces is analogous to IBM computers of the 1960s that took up an entire room to produce a fraction of the computing power in your cell phone.

We’re literally getting more bang for our buck with an effective intelligence apparatus and smart weapons like the $4 million Predator Drone and $68,000 Hellfire missile then we are with hundred million battle tanks and billion dollar submarines.

I wrote some weeks back about the run-away waste and fraud in the military budget, citing several egregious examples for the edification of tea partiers who think the comparatively small cost of food stamps is driving the country to economic ruin.

Congress hasn’t begun to seriously address this monumental squandering of defense dollars, let alone responsibly scaling back or eliminating obsolete or unnecessary weapons systems and redundant military bases like Ellsworth.

And thanks to the defense lobbyist dollars flooding Washington to preserve the bloated Defense Department jobs program, change won’t be coming anytime soon.

Kevin Foley is a public relations executive, author and writer who lives in Kennesaw.

Kevin Foley is a public relations executive, author and writer who lives in Kennesaw.