Congress should freeze historically high Pentagon spending

The debt ceiling deal reached by President Joe Biden and Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy has now been handed into regulation, and the winner is – the Pentagon.

Whereas the remainder of the federal discretionary funds is slated to be frozen at roughly this yr’s stage, the Pentagon and associated spending on nuclear weapons on the Division of Vitality will likely be exempted from the freeze. Navy spending has been set at $886 billion, the quantity requested by the Biden administration for fiscal yr 2024. This represents an historic excessive – lots of of billions of {dollars} greater than on the peaks of the Korean or Vietnam wars or the peak of the Chilly Battle, adjusted for inflation.

An evaluation of the settlement by the Wall Avenue Journal demonstrates that the Pentagon and veteran’s spending – neither of which will likely be topic to the freeze – will high $1 trillion, whereas the entire remaining discretionary applications will likely be left to separate $637 billion. Because of this public well being, environmental safety, vitamin, housing, transportation and a lot of the different main capabilities of the federal government should battle over lower than 40% of the discretionary funds. This gained’t be practically sufficient to account for inflation, a lot much less meet the various unmet wants of the vast majority of American households.

It doesn’t need to be this fashion. We’re dramatically overspending on the Pentagon relative to our real protection wants. The challenges posed by China are primarily political and financial, not navy. And on the navy entrance america spends about thrice as a lot on its navy as China does, and has main allies in East Asia that may shoulder a part of the burden of deterring Beijing, from Australia to Japan to South Korea. The U.S. stockpile of nuclear warheads is 13 occasions as massive as China’s, and the U.S. Navy has way more firepower. If China is the Pentagon’s “‘pacing menace,” it’s time to sluggish the tempo of America’s navy buildup and deal with different pressing nationwide wants.

This week’s settlement isn’t the final phrase. Congress ought to look to revise the funds deal later this yr by capping Pentagon spending at this yr’s stage.

Finally it could be as much as the Pentagon and the navy companies to resolve easy methods to implement such a funds freeze, however there are ample choices to select from. Tens of billions could possibly be saved by lowering the division’s greater than 500,000 non-public contract staff; slowing the tempo of the Pentagon’s three decades-long, $1.7 trillion plan to construct a brand new era of nuclear weapons; modestly lowering the scale of the Military within the face of great recruiting issues; and taking rapid steps to stem contractor worth gouging, which was portrayed intimately in a current report by CBS’s 60 Minutes program.

Over the longer-term america wants a extra sensible technique that elevates diplomacy and reduces the penchant for abroad navy interventions, however the steps outlined above can be essentially the most sensible choices for freezing Pentagon spending within the short-term.

Now that the debt ceiling invoice has handed, Congress ought to no less than guard in opposition to additional will increase in navy spending. The $886 billion contained within the debt ceiling settlement may find yourself being only the start. There will likely be an emergency package deal of navy help for Ukraine later this yr – a needed step in supporting Kyiv’s have to defend itself from Russian aggression. However Congress ought to guarantee that the package deal doesn’t get larded down with Pentagon pet tasks that don’t have anything to do with defending Ukraine. That’s what occurred with the conflict funds – identified formally because the Abroad Contingency Operations (OCO) account – throughout the Iraq and Afghan wars. The consequence was a slush fund that opened the way in which for tens of billions in extra spending past the funds caps that had been purported to be in place to maintain the Pentagon funds inside cheap bounds. Congress mustn’t make that mistake once more.

Most significantly, Congress ought to modify the funds deal and trim the Pentagon funds within the appropriations course of that may play out over the rest of this yr.

William Hartung is a senior analysis fellow on the Quincy Institute for Accountable Statecraft. ©2023 Tribune Content material Company.