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!
Per freedom house the top rated democracies. Note that the US does not make the top of the list anymore.
Sweden 100 Free 40 60
Canada 98 Free 40 58
New Zealand 99 Free 40 59
Norway 100 Free 40 60
Uruguay 97 Free 40 57
Japan 96 Free 40 56
Denmark 97 Free 40 57
Finland 100 Free 40 60
Ireland 97 Free 39 58
Germany 94 Free 39 55
United Kingdom 93 Free 39 54
Belgium 96 Free 39 57
Switzerland 96 Free 39 57
Netherlands 97 Free 39 58
Australia 95 Free 39 56
Portugal 95 Free 39 56
St. Lucia 92 Free 38 54
Chile 94 Free 38 56
Luxembourg 97 Free 38 59
Taiwan 94 Free 38 56
Barbados 95 Free 38 57
Andorra 93 Free 38 55
The Bahamas 91 Free 38 53
Cyprus 93 Free 38 55
Costa Rica 91 Free 38 53
San Marino 93 Free 38 55
Cabo Verde 92 Free 38 54
Lithuania 89 Free 38 51
Estonia 94 Free 38 56
Slovenia 90 Free 38 52
Marshall Islands 93 Free 38 55
France 89 Free 38 51
Latvia 88 Free 37 51
Kiribati 93 Free 37 56
Tuvalu 93 Free 37 56
Iceland 94 Free 37 57
Spain 90 Free 37 53
Grenada 89 Free 37 52
Palau 92 Free 37 55
Austria 93 Free 37 56
Slovakia 90 Free 37 53
Micronesia 92 Free 37 55
Greece 87 Free 37 50
Dominica 93 Free 37 56
Mauritius 86 Free 36 50
Croatia 85 Free 36 49
St. Vincent and the Grenadines 91 Free 36 55
Italy 90 Free 36 54
Mongolia 84 Free 36 48
Czech Republic 91 Free 36 55
Ghana 80 Free 35 45
Romania 83 Free 35 48
Malta 89 Free 35 54
Panama 83 Free 35 48
Argentina 84 Free 35 49
São Tomé and Príncipe 84 Free 35 49
St. Kitts and Nevis 89 Free 35 54
Seychelles 79 Free 34 45
Nauru 77 Free 34 43
Poland 81 Free 34 47
Suriname 79 Free 34 45
Belize 87 Free 34 53
Jamaica 80 Free 34 46
Israel 76 Free 34 42
India 66 Partly Free 33 33
Liechtenstein 90 Free 33 57
Bulgaria 79 Free 33 46
South Africa 79 Free 33 46
Antigua and Barbuda 85 Free 33 52
Timor-Leste 72 Free 33 39
Trinidad and Tobago 82 Free 33 49
South Korea 83 Free 33 50
Vanuatu 82 Free 33 49
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…!
The DEMs and the US political elite in general believe in war as the primary engine of human progress, and argue that the purpose of a country’s economy should be to enable that country to fight and win, also called defensive wars of economic expansion and humanitarians interventions. As such, almost immediately after coming to power, a president embarks on a vast programs of armament, which quickly dwarfs promises made about civilian investment.