Based on the chief financial adviser of the Defense Department, the Biden government is prepared to petition Congress for the highest Pentagon spending plan.
This comes as partisan wrangling over the debt ceiling increases the threat of substantial reductions to the military’s funding arrangements.
Budget for Defense Department
Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord stated in an appearance that authorities are “quite close” to agreeing on a definitive topline figure for the Defense Department.
This is something the White House would include as a component of its total fiscal 2024 proposed budget, which is scheduled to be released on March 9.
According to the interview, he anticipates it will be a larger amount than Congress approved in 2022.
He said the Pentagon may spend on ammunition to restock American stocks and help the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Both sides are going through thousands of bullets each day, but he refused to go into further detail because the concept is still in transition.
Biden requested $45 billion less in the national military budget than what lawmakers ultimately approved in December: $858 billion.
This includes $817 billion for the Pentagon and additional billions for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons research as well as additional national defense initiatives.
EXCLU: The Biden administration is preparing to ask Congress for the largest Pentagon budget in history, DoD's chief financial officer tells me, as partisan squabbling over the debt ceiling raises the specter of deep cuts to the military’s funding plans. https://t.co/OZVC9E4xTz
— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) February 10, 2023
It reflected the Pentagon’s attempts to concurrently address the Russian danger, stay current with China’s rising technological superiority, update outdated armaments, and combat inflation.
At that point, it represented the highest the United States had ever invested in the Defense Department.
However, with Republicans now in control of the House and a politicized dispute over the country’s debt ceiling raging, the future of Biden’s Pentagon spending is becoming more and more questionable.
Republican senators have requested significant expenditure cutbacks, possibly affecting defense, in return for lifting the debt ceiling. This comes with only four months left before the Treasury Department may exhaust its options to prevent a catastrophe.
Republicans still need to agree on a particular list of requirements for raising the debt ceiling; although House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has expressed admiration for limiting expenditures.
Regressing to the budget amounts from the previous year could result in an overall cut of over $75 billion or approximately 10%. That’s if the Pentagon were not exempt from those reductions.
NO ONE believes that Joe is preparing ANYTHING.
JUST IN – Biden prepares largest Pentagon budget in history as spending cuts loom, Politico reports
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— 💫Queen of Seventeen 1️⃣7️⃣✝️❤️🇺🇲🥃 (@AreYouAwaQe) February 10, 2023
Inside the Republican Party, there seem to be significant rifts regarding possible defense budget cuts. Many hardline lawmakers have worked to stop any discussion of cutting the Pentagon’s funding and thereby advocate making cuts to non-military initiatives.
In order to combat the impacts of inflation and prepare for challenges from Moscow and Beijing, defense supporters are really planning a second rise this year of up to five percent.
However, a tiny but outspoken group of fiscal conservatives in the GOP party are adamant about reducing defense expenditures.
Some of them, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, even reject maintaining assistance to Ukraine. It will be challenging to persuade those legislators.
Lawmakers Face Hard Decisions
McCord is aware of the similarities between the present state of affairs and the discussion that resulted in the forced spending cutbacks known as sequestration 12 years ago.
Republicans demanded expenditure reductions in return for lifting the debt ceiling in 2011, just as they had seized the majority in the House.
The Budget Control Act, which was passed to end the problem, required spending reductions totaling hundreds of billions of dollars over the ensuing ten years.
This year, McCord said, legislators will be required to make difficult decisions regarding where to reduce the defense budget.
This article appeared in The Patriot Brief and has been published here with permission.
