Posted on 06/01/2024 5:59:22 PM PDT by RandFan
Republican lawmakers are facing an internal battle over defense spending as prominent Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, are pushing for big increases while conservatives are raising alarms over the debt.
The battle within the GOP over how much to increase defense spending to deter threats from Russia, China and Iran will burst into public next month when the Senate is set to debate the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
McConnell and Wicker are laying the groundwork for that debate by calling for major increases in defense spending above what the Biden administration and the Republican chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), have proposed for 2025.
They are squaring off against a small group of fiscal conservatives in both chambers who wield outsized leverage in the narrow House GOP majority and want to keep a strict cap on defense and nondefense spending levels.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at the start of the 118th Congress called on Republicans “to give up the sacred cow that says we will never touch a dollar in military.”
On Thursday, he accused Wicker of wanting to “explode” the defense budget.
“Big spending Republicans want to explode military budget. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: both parties are to blame for $34T debt!” Paul wrote on the social media site X.
Paul joined Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last year in introducing legislation to require the Department of Defense to pass an independent audit and mandate that any defense component that fails to complete a clean audit return 1 percent of its budget to the Treasury Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
It needs to be understood that military technology is undergoing rapid change.
If you are worried about The Debt (and you should be) Forget looking at The Defense. Look where The Real Money is..Entitlements.
There is well over $5 trillion in domestic spending from which funds can be cut to fund defense spending. Pick the cuts as you may - a lot of that $5 trillion causes more harm than good anyway.
And / or: Greatly expand petroleum products production, which generates revenues all over the place, but most crucially in exports.
“ The battle within the GOP over how much to increase defense spending to deter threats from Russia, China and Iran”
The only threat I am concerned about is from the border with Mexico.
The threats from the “Big Three” are all to weak, small neighbors who have nothing to do with us. Instead of US military spending on them with no return to us, let them reach accommodation with their neighbors.
“ lot of that $5 trillion causes more harm than good anyway.”
So does most “defense” spending.
It’s Spend, Spend, Spend.
They don’t care. They’re 75 and somehow money keeps falling in their laps.
As Obama said, my family will do just fine.
“Defense Spending” = “Ukraine Money Laundering”
The nation is Bankrupt & they want more money for GloboHomo.
We are under occupation.
We need to be really careful with military spending, especially with increases anywhere. We will not get second chances to get it right.
Too much of our current spending is simply grift for the defense industry. We do not have competent leadership in either military or civilian organizations, and those people cannot be permitted to control new programs.
Drones and other automatic killing machines have rendered current doctrines of infantry and armor tactics obsolete. Our soldiers are dead meat in a peer level conflict. The people who can come up with newer successful tactics are not in positions to implement them. And we need drastically altered techniques for using artillery.
There will be another big war. Our current politicians have guaranteed it. We had best find ways to avoid, or at least not to lose it.
The administrative state serves no one but their continued employment. Why send a dollar to Washington to get a cent in return? God help us.
How much of the Defense budget is “black” and what are they doing with that money and why don’t they tell us?
It needs to be understood that U.S. military spending is basically welfare for white people (both here and abroad).
I read all these “conservatives” ranting against defense spending and I want to cry.
Are you out of your freekin minds?
China, Russia and Iran are no threat to us?
Unreal.
“Boo hoo I only care about the Southern Border! “
Are some of you really that ignorant?
Sorry, but for so called “conservatives” the viewponts about national defense are completely outrageous.
Mitch McConnell has proven himself to be nothing more than an assistant Democrat. This is just another example.
No more fighter jets. No more aircraft carriers. No more tanks.
Just lots of intelligent drones and missiles.
Forget the entitlements. Since 2020 there has been something like 8-10 trillion in NEW government spending. Biden and Senate republicans spent around 4 trillion in new spending between the inflation reduction bill and the infrastructure bill.
After all, weren't we told that global warming is our worst enemy?
If there are any leftover funds they can be directed to gender transitioning drugs and procedures in order to create a more inclusive military.
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