President Biden is being hammered from both sides of the aisle for his proposed $ 715 billion defense budget released by the White House on Friday, with progressive people saying it’s too much money for the Pentagon, while Republicans say the proposal falls short as the defense needs.
Biden announced the Pentagon spending proposal on Friday as part of its broader $ 1.5 trillion request for 2022.
Progressives have pledged Biden for the $ 715 billion proposal for the Pentagon – a 1.6% increase over the $ 203.7 billion enactment levels, according to the budget plan.
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Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, said the Pentagon boost was “disappointing” if Biden had to return to the Obama administration’s defense spending.
Another leading progressive vote, Representative Mark Pocan, D-Wis., Pawned the “unacceptable increase in the Pentagon budget” and said defense spending would have to be cut to get enough Democratic votes to pass the House.
“We can not build back better if the Pentagon’s budget is larger than it was under Donald Trump,” Pocan said Friday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Wanted more defense cuts in Biden’s 2022 budget.
And Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Said he had “serious concerns” about the “inflated” Pentagon request.
“At a time when the US is already spending more on the military than the next 12 countries combined, it is time we take a serious look at the enormous cost overruns, waste and fraud that currently exist in the Pentagon,” Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday.
Progressive people, however, were in favor of Biden’s defense proposal to eliminate the Overseas Contingency Operations Fund as a separate ‘Pentagon slush fund’ – as Pocan called it. Instead of the separate war fund, which amounts to about $ 69 billion in 2021, the Biden proposal calls for funding for continued war costs as part of the overall budget for the defense base.
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Across the aisle, Republicans have blasted the Pentagon budget as too small to maintain the United States’ competitive advantage over China.
In a statement on Friday, five leading GOP senators argued that Biden’s proposed 1.6% increase in Pentagon funds would actually be a $ 1 billion cut, because spending levels would not keep pace with inflation.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Speaks at a News Conference at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky., Monday, April 5, 2021. (AP Photo / Timothy D. Easley)
“President Biden’s budget proposal cuts defense spending and sends a terrible signal not only to our opponents in Beijing and Moscow, but also to our allies and partners,” the IDP senators wrote. “The cuts to America’s defense budget completely undermine the Washington Democrats’ tough talk on China and question the government’s willingness to confront the Chinese Communist Party.”
The statement was written by Gitch leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Richard Shelby of Alabama.
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Press Secretary John Kirby on Friday at the Pentagon press briefing addressed the concerns raised by GOP senators about the budget being too small.
Kirby said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III “is grateful for this level of funding because he believes it will enable us to renew, modernize and … defend the nation.”
Biden’s budget proposal to Congress is designed to outline the vision for what the White House prioritizes, but it is unlikely that it will ever become a reality, as it is up to Congress to erase such funding levels.
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While the White House proposal increases defense spending by about 1.6 percent, Biden envisages a 16 percent increase in non-defense spending. The cabinet-level department that would get the biggest boost under Biden’s vision would be the Department of Education, with an increase of 41 percent over 2021.