The Biden administration is asking for $886 billion in defense spending for 2024, a 3% increase that would make it the largest military budget in peacetime.
The question came Thursday as part of President Joe Biden’s overall budget request — his annual pitch to Congress that is seen as the clearest statement yet of the president’s values and goals. This highlights two facts about defense policy under Biden: that the president is counting on his national security credentials for his re-election bid, and that he is unlikely to limit the military budget as many progressives and some conservatives want.
Despite the government’s promise to focus on domestic investment and diplomacy over militarism in foreign policy, the annual military spending of the United States is fast approaching $1 trillion and could reach that symbolic mark when Biden takes office.
Biden’s team won a big defense plea by saying the U.S. must compete with China and help Ukraine repel a Russian invasion. But hawkish lawmakers, from Republicans who run the House of Representatives to moderate Democrats in both chambers of the legislature, are likely to cite the same geopolitical issues to get more funding.
History shows that it can force Biden’s hand. In 2021, Congress forced Biden to spend nearly $30 billion more on defense than he requested. The next year, he open discussion by offering a further increase, from $780 billion to $813 billion – but Capitol Hill pushed Biden to finally approve $45 billion above that, entering a record $858 billion defense budget.
Now Biden has once again started the budget discussion by approving an increase beyond the previous limits on military spending. And conservatives like Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Wall Street Journal editorial board have argued that is insufficient due to inflation and the fact that most of the increases proposed by Biden are 5% pay increases for the troops.
“This defense budget is a serious indication of President Biden’s failure to prioritize national security,” said Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Meanwhile, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), an influential anti-war icon, challenged Biden’s defense spending targets while praising the overall 2024 proposal. “I am disappointed … that this budget continues the regressive trend of increasing the wasteful and wasteful defense budget every year with little oversight,” said Lee.
Critics of the massive military budget have criticized Biden’s approach during his presidency, quarrel that style is inconsistent with the president’s efforts to wind down the American military intervention and which promises to divert money away from the dated defense system. Earlier this year, the movement to question military spending seemed to gain traction when some Republican members of the House of Representatives expressed support for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reconsider the defense budget.
But Hill’s sources and experts say there is no prospect of serious change this year.
“This is one area where the hardliners at the Republican conference don’t have much leverage: If you get 10 or 20 MAGA members to vote against [National Defense Authorization Act]you will easily replace it with 130 Democrats,” said a progressive congressional aide who was not authorized to speak on the record. “I think in the end the Hawks will win: You can easily build a bipartisan coalition for any Pentagon budget you want.”
Biden’s team did not try to sell the new defense spending figures to Democratic critics before unveiling the budget request, according to the aide and a senior congressional aide.
“There is no serious effort to try and reduce costs,” the senior aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity and citing Biden’s failure to consider disposing of nuclear weapons as an example. To address concerns among more dovish Democrats, the administration could keep its budget close to last year’s level while potentially increasing some Ukraine-focused aid, the aide said.
“Both Republicans and Democrats who would be sympathetic to the question generally tend to see more work in their districts.”
– A progressive congress assistant
William Hartung, a longtime defense analyst now at the Quincy Institute think tank, recently wrote, “Congress may add substantial amounts to the Pentagon’s requests, particularly for systems and facilities located in key member states and districts.”
“There is no way to create a budget – or defend the country,” said Hartung, whose organization has been supported by liberal billionaire George Soros and the conservative Koch network and seeks to unite progressives, libertarians and others to reform US foreign policy.
Interviewed by Defense News, former Trump administration official Elaine McCusker predicted that McCarthy will cave to the defense hawks regardless of the promises he made to win the speaker.
With traditionalists in the GOP holding more power over Biden’s defense budget than ever before, “the calculus for Republicans is how high we can go and keep the Adam Smith of the world,” the senior aide said, referring to key moderate Democrats. at Home.
As always, lobbying by powerful Pentagon contractors will also play a key role in preventing lawmakers from considering military spending cuts, the progressive aide said.
“Everybody got an email saying ‘this contract has been awarded in your district,'” the staffer said. “Defense companies have been very smart about disrupting the production chain. Both Republicans and Democrats who would sympathize with the overall question tend to see more jobs in their districts.
The situation reflects the strength of a still-constrained coalition of US lawmakers, officials and activists who want a less aggressive American approach to global affairs and who have won over the past few years.
Some members of the group are worried that their power is really waning, showing signs like the new House voted to withdraw US troops from Syria who won less support than the same vote last year.
Washington Post via Getty Images
A similar vote on the American deployment in other countries like Niger is expected in the coming months and will be a “litmus test,” said a senior aide, of the power of the coalition that has established itself as “an end to endless war.”
“I hope it will be an educational exercise, because I’m sure some of our members and staff don’t know all the countries we fight in around the world,” the aide said.
Advocates for a more restrained military posture and greater resources for diplomacy are considering how to strengthen their case.
He could, for example, more aggressively attack specific details of the defense budget, progressive aides said.
“Our messaging with a 10% cut across the board made it easy for other Democrats and even some Republicans to say, ‘Oh, here’s a 10% cut in cancer research. [the Defense Department],'” continued the progressive aide. “If we say, cut this particular program or close this particular base, we’re going to save more than 10% and fight on stronger ground … that could be a better fight for us.”
Additionally, he could use Biden’s budget sticker shock to bolster calls for diplomacy between Ukraine and Russia, according to the senior aide.
“That’s why we need to stop the war in Ukraine because we’re spending so much on defense to try and focus on Russia and China at the same time,” the aide said.
With Biden increasingly focused on re-election, the alliance must also make it clear that it is important to voters – if they choose to vote for moderates by offering orthodox views on issues like national security, they do not necessarily offer progressive support.
As the election nears — and the GOP makes its own bids for war-weary voters — less hawkish Democrats may be more strident in their calls for change after years of disillusionment.
“For an administration that says it’s focused on human rights, this is a budget that shows that’s not true,” the progressive aide said.