Efforts to add more to President Biden’s requested 2023 military budget are ramping up as hawks in Congress and US weapons makers are calling for more spending, Politico reported on Thursday.
Biden asked for an $813 billion military budget, which represents about a 4% increase from the $782 billion that was approved for 2022. But with inflation over 8%, Congress wants more, and the Biden administration appears poised to agree.
“I just think we have everything on our side on this thing,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the leading Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We ought to be able to get the adequate increases that we want.”
While the push is being led by Republicans, many Democrats also favor a spending hike. It’s not clear at this point what sort of increase Congress will approve. Some Republicans are calling for a 5% increase on top of inflation, which would require a massive boost.
The US military services have put together a list of $17.8 billion in possible spending that wasn’t included in Biden’s budget request that could be added to the $813 billion.
In May, a group of US arms makers and aerospace firms sent a letter to congressional leaders of the appropriations and armed services committees that called for an increase to the 2023 budget.
The letter was sent by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), a trade group for defense firms whose members include Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics. The AIA wants to see an increase of 3-5% over inflation.
The main justification Republican hawks and the AIA use to call for more military spending is China, which the Pentagon has named the top “threat” facing the US military. With this in mind, some House lawmakers have requested an increase in spending for US Indo-Pacific Command.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks has already signaled that the Biden administration is willing to add on to the $813 billion budget. “Where inflation will be in September, let alone this time next year, we don’t know, but we want to work with Congress on the ‘23 budget to make sure we have the purchasing power for this program,” Hicks said last month.
The war parties are in step when it serves their purpose, that is the only reason why they are in government. The not so famous bipartisanship works when it has to feed the MIC dragon, the bottomless pit. MSM is silent.
Russian state propaganda isn’t allowed in the US.
True, western MSM, that includes every NATO member nation, is censored, nothing new about that.
Dem or Rep it makes no difference how we vote. When it comes to war our democracy is a pure illusion. Both are war parties deeply in the pockets of the military industrial complex. Third parties now!
Comrade, you can always emigrate.
Belarus, North Korea or maybe Venezuela?
Are you a professional agitator?…
No, Don is a writer of what he believes are challenging but are really dumb and often insulting comments. Moreover, his knowledge of world history is a passel of made-up nonsense.
I welcome his comments because they represent what millions of our citizens believe. How bad it really is for anti-war citizens.
Dieter, I assume you mean your follow citizens in Germany?
He didn’t say a damn thing about Russia and yet another “comrade” insult. So, piglet, are you FOR the MIC or can’t you stop yourself from being a full time a$$hole?
Did I even mention that sh!thole of a country?
And Comrade isn’t an insult, sheep.
You’re boring. Get some fresh stuff if you don’t want people to draw conclusions from what you regurgitate.
Silence, sheep.
Bacon, what do you think is coming to the USA, U dumb ####!
No retards from Belarus, that’s for sure.
In other words, you should emigrate there asap so you can be among friends!
Well said and I very much agree, though, third parties have a long way to go to gain any real momentum…
Joe Biden is insane!
Creepy too.
It’s remarkable that the people who think Russia can be broken by driving them into bankruptcy can’t see what they are doing to the US.
USA already there!
No similar concern though about the purchasing power of all the other govt programs, clearly. Such as being ready for the next pandemic development. Or maintaining our infrastructure.
These MOFUing Ghouls are going to push us into economic depression as JoBye has pushed us into mental depression going hand in hand with his dementia. “Express Elevator To Hell” is coming at us all at break neck speed! 🙁
Remember, this is just a down payment just to keep up w/inflation 🙂
The inflation argument is bogus. Inflation is not uniform. Have food and fuel cots gone through the roof? Yes. But electronic components, not so much. The military makes long term contracts for their high end stuff and could use their buying power to keep costs down. The suppliers just can’t up the cost like its a box of eggs.
Remember how the Republicans howled at Biden’s infrastructure plan, I’m talking about the good one that got passed. The talking point was, ‘it costs $1.2T (over 10yrs)’. Over the same time period we are easily going to pay $8 – 10T for the military.
Both parties SUCK,,abolish both!!
Among the first victims of every war is bad financing.
Wars can’t be financed, ever, the only thing really financed in war are the profits, the rest is nothing but blood and tears for the people.
This is typically how empires end: spending splurges on the military for far flung affairs and profit to cronies, meanwhile the heartland deteriorates and falls apart. It’s classic. And it’s accelerating.
True, overextended military and incompetent governments are typical of collapsing empires.
One thing for sure… US is the most $ wasteful country in the world…!