Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and other top Republicans, have criticized President Biden’s defense budget. While proposing a modest increase in military spending, Biden also sought to increase the budget for non-defense programs by 16 percent.
According to The Hill in Washington, D.C., McConnell, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and other Republican senators, accused Biden of prioritizing “liberal wish list priorities” while “the U.S. military’s budget is being ignored.”
Republican senators warned that Biden’s defense budget could not keep pace with the Chinese Communist Party, which “aspires to surpass the United States and become the world’s superpower.
The senators wrote: “Over the past decade, China’s (CCP) defense spending has increased by $200 billion, while the United States has decreased by $400 billion. China’s (CCP) military investments are consistent with its desire to outpace the United States in the competition and put our military at risk.” “President Biden’s defense spending cuts have not even kept pace with inflation.”
Biden proposes a sizable 16 percent increase in non-defense spending, with the plan proposing a total non-defense budget of $769 billion, an increase of $105 billion over current levels.
At the same time, he would raise the defense budget by 1.7 percent to $753 billion, an increase of $12.3 billion over current levels.
Republican senators wrote, “If President Biden’s support for the U.S. military is matched by his enthusiasm for domestic spending, then the Chinese Communist Party will not be able to outpace us.” “President Biden’s budget proposal weakens defense spending and sends a terrible signal not only to our opponents in Beijing and Moscow, but also to our allies and partners.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a senior member of the Senate Budget Committee (SBC), and Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) Vice Chairman Richard Shelby Richard Shelby (R-Ariz.) also signed the letter.
Senate Republican aides warned that if Biden’s defense spending proposal fails to meet Republican expectations, it would jeopardize the chances of bipartisan passage of a bill that would make the U.S. more competitive with the Chinese Communist Party and worsen what some policymakers see as a growing economic and military threat.
Republican senators said Friday (April 9) that any bipartisan legislation that Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hopes to introduce against the Chinese Communist Party would be undercut by Biden’s defense budget proposal.
We are prepared to work through the regular process to enact more bipartisan legislation to deal with the Chinese Communist Party,” the senators said. But that process will not work if the Biden administration insists on cutting budgets for the most important tools in our toolbox.”
Meanwhile, liberals (liberal, left) in both the House and Senate have warned about the excessive defense spending in Biden’s budget.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday that he has “serious concerns” about spending $753 billion on a “bloated Pentagon. “serious concerns.”
In a statement, he said, “The United States already spends more on the military than the next 12 countries combined, and it’s time we seriously consider that there are currently huge overspending, waste and fraud at the Pentagon.”
In the House, Rep. Mark Pocan, a liberal Wisconsin Democrat, commented that the $12.3 billion increase in defense spending is “too large” given the extent of the Pentagon’s budget growth in recent years.
In a statement, he noted that the Pentagon’s increased spending “takes money away from other people-centered policies, such as health care, education and housing.”
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