Veteran Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama is correct: President Joe Biden still is short-changing the needs of U.S. military services.
Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has had harsh words for Biden’s 2023 Pentagon budget proposal. Even amid the war in Ukraine and China’s saber-rattling, both of which remind us that the world is more dangerous than it was just half a decade ago, Biden’s proposed defense spending doesn’t even keep up with inflation. Worse, as the Wall Street Journal editorialists note, Biden is mothballing more ships than he approves for construction. President Ronald Reagan once justifiably wanted a Navy approaching 600 ships; Biden won’t even maintain 300.
As Shelby said, “We live in an increasingly dangerous world. Today’s security environment demands a level of investment that will meet and defeat the threat. It’s time for the Administration to get serious about addressing the threat posed by Russian aggression and the growing worldwide ambitions of the People’s Republic of China. … Once again, this request puts us on the wrong foot to start the fiscal year 2023 cycle, and it does not bode well for the coming appropriations process.”
That’s not the only sort of security Biden’s shortchanging. Amid an absolute crisis at the Mexican border, Shelby complained that “the President actually proposes a cut in spending for border security.” Biden’s proposal is unconscionable, coming atop a long series of actions virtually begging illegal immigrants to swarm this nation and ignore its laws.
In all, national security spending under Biden’s plan would reach $813 billion in 2023, just a 3% increase, even as inflation is roaring at well above 6%. By contrast, Biden proposes that domestic spending, which already has risen hugely for 20 years and by astronomical amounts in the past half-decade, receive yet another $100 billion increase, 14% above this year’s levels.
The president’s priorities are way out of whack. It’s almost as if Biden is embarrassed by the idea that the U.S. or its just interests are worth defending.
