Both left-wing Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized the Biden administration’s proposed defense budget for the next fiscal year but for opposite reasons.
The administration revealed earlier this week its request for more than $813 billion for national defense, with $773 billion of it going to the Department of Defense.
Prior to its release, Republicans had repeatedly called for a 5% increase of the inflation-adjusted FY22 enacted level, while the proposal includes an increase of 1.5% when adjusting for inflation. By contrast, the Congressional Progressive Caucus called it “simply unacceptable” that President Joe Biden is “proposing record-high military spending” after the “conclusion of our longest war and during a period of Democratic control of both chambers of Congress.”
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“The Pentagon remains unable to pass an audit, and its history of waste, fraud, and abuse continues to misuse taxpayer dollars,” the statement continued. “We will continue to vigorously advocate against this military spending proposal, as we have in years past. And we remain committed to our mission of working toward a federal budget that prioritizes peace, diplomacy, and American families’ needs over those of war.”
The caucus also noted the Pentagon’s increasing budget over recent years “has exploded.” As a result, “the federal government has been forced to pinch pennies for decades when it comes to investments in working families,” though such “concerns evaporate when it comes to the Pentagon’s endlessly growing, unaudited budget.”
Republicans preemptively urged the White House to account for inflation in their budget, and the proposal did not meet that bar. Rep. Mike Rogers and Sen. Jim Inhofe, the ranking members on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, reached out to the Pentagon on Tuesday to ask for information on how inflation is impacting the budget proposal.
“It’s ignorant to believe these historically high inflation rates aren’t hurting our service members just like they are every other American family,” Rogers and Inhofe said in a statement. “Beyond that, inflation is also driving up key military needs like fuel, as well as the cost of labor and supplies — but this budget doesn’t appear to address that reality. We need to understand what assumptions the Department is operating under, how they arrived at their inflation estimate, and how Congress can help meet the needs of our military as we develop our own recommendations for the 2023 fiscal year.”
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the proposed budget provides the department with the funding to face “the acute threat of an aggressive Russia” and “the pacing challenge of China.”
Biden, in a statement, noted the budget is “one of the largest investments in our national security in history, with the funds needed to ensure that our military remains the best-prepared, best-trained, best-equipped military in the world.”
