The difference between the Army and the Navy is due primarily to the difference in their peacetime roles. The US will always be a nation that benefits from a lack of peacetime ground threats (so no need for a large standing peacetime army to secure the homeland), and the requirement for unhindered access to global markets and resources, that demands a robust Navy in both peace and war.

This is not a matter of policy so much as a matter of geostrategic realities and common sense. Any policy or effort to somehow treat or view these two services as "equals" in times of peace is not well thought out at best, and at worst subjugated the needs of the nation to the desires of the individuals and organizations advocating for an excessive peacetime ground force.

Oh, and while we are currently a nation with troops in combat, we are not a nation at war, so to play the "we're at war" card every time one wants to justify more deficit spending on ground force capabilities is growing wearisome as well. Current "COIN" definitions and doctrine accentuate this problem.