Congress should not cut defense spending next year due to the renewed rivalry with Russia and China, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday during a defense policy forum.
“Doing so would be a dangerous disservice to our troops and the American people they serve and protect,” Mattis said during the Reagan Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif. “We all know that America can afford survival.”
Mattis delivered that message as a mix of compliments for “the political courage of our Congress” in providing a major defense spending increase last year, as well as warnings of the national security catastrophe if the funding sees another slash. And the message was especially pointed at the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, which will be chaired by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., due to the Democratic takeover in the 2018 midterm elections.
“I visit to pay my respects to two role models here today,” Mattis said, referring to Smith and current Republican Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas. “The bipartisan nature of how you work together puts into practice Sen. Vandenberg’s call for collaboration that politics stops ‘at the water’s edge.’ Thank you both. I look forward to again working with you in the House Committee.”
That compliment is especially pointed, however, given Smith’s comments about how he will seek to cut defense spending.
“We are not in a fiscal position to have the size of defense budget that a lot of people envision when they start spinning out all of these nightmare scenarios about everything that we have to be prepared for,” Smith said in September. “Our country has priorities, we have got a debt, we have got a deficit, we have infrastructure problems, we’ve got healthcare, education. There is a whole lot that is necessary to make our country safe, secure, and prosperous and you have to look at it within the entire picture.”
Mattis challenged that line of thinking during his prepared remarks at the defense forum. He recalled that U.S. forces had lost the technological ability to destroy enemy tanks by the outbreak of conflict in Korea in 1950, just five years after the end of World War II.
“We have no pre-ordained right to victory on the battlefield,” said Mattis. “So, when we measure defense spending, we must realize it is near historic lows as a share of both the federal budget and our national economy … that in 1957, defense spending was fifty-two percent of the federal budget and in 2017, it was fifteen percent. Defense spending today accounts for three percent of America’s gross domestic product.”
The Korean Conflict pit U.S. forces against China’s military, when North and South Korea went to war in a proxy battle between communist and democratic states, and Mattis’ invocation of that fight seemed designed to evoke the concern of another potential clash with Beijing.
“We are in an era of great power competition,” Mattis said. “But as President Trump has said, competition ‘does not always mean hostility, nor does it inevitably lead to conflict.’ It won’t, if we continue to invest in strength. This is true of America’s relationship with China.”
