On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee agreed to boost President Biden’s requested military budget for the 2023 fiscal year by $37 billion.
While the House panel agreed to a massive increase, it’s still lower than the $45 billion boost proposed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, setting up a fight between the chambers on how much to hike military spending.
It marks the second year in a row that Congress has blown past Biden’s requested military budget. For the 2022 fiscal year, the president asked for $753 billion, which was ultimately raised to $782 billion. For 2023, he requested $813 billion, which represents about a 4% increase from 2022.
The Senate plan would bring the military budget to about $858 billion, while the House proposal would make it about $850 billion. The Democrat-led House Armed Services Committee passed the $37 billion increase in a vote of 42-17.
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), an ultra-hawk who wants to give President Biden war powers to fight China if it invades Taiwan, was one of the leaders of the effort to boost the budget. After it was approved by the panel, Luria said she expected the budget to “land somewhere north” of the $37 billion increase when the House and Senate negotiate the final bill.
And… Inflation
And Ukraine.
The DOD has no real budget. That is a fiction. The DOD operates without accountability and spends whatever it does without regard to constraints. The discussion and debate surrounding the DOD’s budget is a foreign policy tool to amplify the message that the US is willing to put a gun to anyone’s head at any time. It also serves as a macho measurement for political candidates when campaigning on their willingness to put the entire globe at risk from the lunatics, like themselves, who run this country.
Defying the president’s request two years in a row. Funny, how I don’t anticipate a lot of flak from Biden for that defiance.