The House on Thursday passed the massive $858 billion 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a vote of 350-80, sending the bill to the Senate, where a vote is expected to be held next week.
The $858 billion NDAA is $45 billion more than President Biden asked for, marking the second year in a row that Congress made the military budget higher than what the White House requested. The amount represents an 8% increase from the 2022 NDAA, which was finalized at $782 billion.
According to Defense News, the 2023 NDAA dropped amendments added to the House version that would have restricted weapons sales to countries accused of human rights abuses. Such provisions were included in the House version of the NDAA but didn’t make it past into the final version that was negotiated with the Senate.
Notable amendments packed into the NDAA include a measure that will give the Pentagon wartime purchasing powers by allowing non-competitive, multi-year contracts for certain arms. The authority could be used to refill US stockpiles, arm Ukraine, and assist foreign governments that have provided support for Ukraine.
The list of munitions the Pentagon is allowed to procure using the purchasing powers is extensive and includes HIMARS rocket launch systems, 155mm ammunition, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and much more.
US weapons manufacturers will benefit greatly from the new authority, especially Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, as many of their systems are on the list. The multi-year contracts will incentivize the arms makers to significantly ramp up production.
The NDAA includes unprecedented military aid for Taiwan, including $10 billion that will be disbursed over five years and $1 billion in annual presidential drawdown authority, which will allow the US to send Taipei weapons directly from Pentagon stockpiles.
Ukraine will receive $800 million in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative from the NDAA, a program that allows the US government to purchase weapons for Ukraine. But the vast majority of spending on the Ukraine war will come through emergency funding, and the White House is hoping Congress approves a new $37.7 billion tranche of Ukraine aid during the lame-duck period.
The NDAA includes $11.5 billion in new investments for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a program to build up in the Asia Pacific to confront China. The Pentagon has identified China as its main focus, and the NDAA includes investment in new technology research and development that US military leaders say is meant to counter Beijing.
How low can you go Joe?! Does it hurt when you kowtow? More than you asked for?! Same as it ever was… “Confront China?” “Counter China?” And Russia too… Billions of WAR dollars. The funny part is the WAR Machine loves you too… “Deterrence Initiative?” A nice phrase, sounds very responsible. War Time Purchasing Power? Forgive my cynicism Joe but, you seem like you are gearing up for WAR. Better inventory the nuke supply, make sure everything is up to snuff. Because it will be nuclear Joe…WORLD WAR 3. We seem to be fated to it.
“How low can you go Joe?!”
Ukrainians are getting slaughtered by the thousands, and Russians killed, but the Merchants of this Death and the their pocket pols are in hog heaven.
With all due respect Mr. Scheetz, sincerely, when you interrupt someone as they are writing it is slightly distracting and I hope you don’t mind if I suggest to you, to wait until someone is finished posting before you interrupt them.
Sorry.
Joe “You don’t have to be J==ish to be a Zionist” Biden has never met a war that he didn’t like, going back decades. If memory serves me right, he was one of the authors of the original NDAA that came into being even before 9/11. He and every president since that horrible day have danced around exactly who the real perps were. 9/11 was the pretext for all the Middle East wars of this century, all for you know who.
The pit in Rev. is bottomless, isn’t it?
The purpose of all this is to take money from the taxpayers and distribute it between those who have the power.
Certified gift cards for our friends to pick the beautiful, high quality weapons they want in the American MIC gift shop. They can pick the toys they like best.
That is the genius American way to export weapons. Great, it can’t get better.
And, if you can’t pay for them, the American taxpayer will pick up the bill. “Got no credit? it’s ok COME AND GET IT!!
US is number one in the world at Wasting Money that they printed out of the blue…!
The devil, Satan, Iblis, Ahriman or some other bad entity is behind this, there’s no other explanation of how insanity is spreading around the world, especially in the west, and Wash. seems to be where it’s coming from. Whether the devil comes from within the collective consciousness or somewhere outside doesn’t matter, it exists and we are witnessing its work every day.
I realize that this is not related to the subject of the article, but I must post. The Keystone pipeline that runs from Canada to Texas has been shut down due to a leak. An estimated 14,000 barrels has leaked into a Kansas creek. Of course our priorities……………………
The Russian MOD is disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense. What they loose in the Ukraine, they loose for the final NATO war against Russia. A war the US/NATO is loosing.
NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
341 Aircraft, 181 helicopters, 2643 UAV’s, 392 Anti Aircraft systems, 7043 tanks inc. APC’s, 924 multiple rocket launchers, 3668 rocket launchers and 7522 military automotive equipment.
Do you have special dice to generate all those numbers, or do you use like some kind of bingo/lottery drum with ping pong balls?
I use the Russian MOD Briefing.
So how do they generate those imaginary numbers?
The MOD reports are probably the best numbers we have. I check them daily, looking more for variations than for raw numbers. It gives me a reasonably accurate assessment – as much as I am going to get – of what is happening on the ground.
The MOD *does* report bad news for Russia. If anything, Russia balances out the almost hysterical over the top Western reporting of US victories in Ukraine and Russia, with pessimistic almost fatalistic stories of impending Russian doom.
Meanwhile, Russia still has Crimea and about 20% of the rest of Ukraine.
The Mod of course could go look himself here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggxMaXtnqXQ
One of the most convincing aspects of the MOD numbers is that the MOD uses them to make planning decisions. They do appear to be one-sided in that they don’t publicly report (as far as I know) their own losses. But that is to be expected.
I have always assumed that opposition to Congressional calls to provide our own accounting of equipment losses is motivated by a desire to keep that information out of the public eye.
How have you arrived at the conclusion that the MOD is using figures like:
For planning – how would you even plan based on such figures?
The numbers are reported daily for every location. I haven’t accumulated the numbers myself. But some observers accumulate them on spreadsheets in order to keep current. The more appropriate view, in my opinion, is “How could the MOD possibly execute its operations without such information?”
OK I see the value, if they have numbers of equipment available then subtracting what has been destroyed could help them figure how much is supposedly left – them using the figures you propose then goes a long way to explain why things are going as they are.
“One of the most convincing aspects of the MOD numbers is that the MOD uses them to make planning decisions.”
How do you know this?
Is there any particular reason why they wouldn’t advertise numbers that make for good propaganda, while using different numbers that they think better reflect reality for their planning purposes?
Try doing a little reading on the US use of “body counts” in Vietnam.
Lol
Retired Marine Corps Colonel Andrew Milburn, who leads the American Mozart Group intended as a counter to Wagner, said that they were unable to provide decent opposition to the Russian PMC.
The Mozart Group leader admitted that he will likely be forced to curtail his activities early next year because of it. This confirms the reports about the bad situation of the Ukrainian army in Bakhmut.
The situation in Bakhmut is turning into a real tragedy for Kiev. Massive loss of life and equipment.
Going from $782 billion to $858 billion is a 9.7% increase, not 8%
That is $260 for every man, woman and child in the US, with no economic return. US loves to create nails all around the world, then buy hammers to hit them.
Russia’s artillery now reaches all of Bakhmut. Ukies move into new residential areas which then become targets – this was revealed, a slip, in an otherwise worshipping British article. A civilian was interviewed, blaming Kiev for the destruction of his home. The Ukrainian machine gunner interviewed said the civilian man’s opinion was “widespread”. Don’t let these slips through in the future!
Anyway, General Surovikin calls Bakhmut a “meatgrinder”. Russia has nine times more artillery there than Kiev, as a Kiev officer revealed in another article. Surovikin is content with “grinding down” the Ukrainian army, which keeps bussing in new conscripts to the slaughter. They are running out of food and ammunition, the hospitals are severely strained.
So, more money? What does it matter when it’s just transported in to be destroyed? The majority of fighting takes place in Donbass. People don’t know this. Kiev’s main advantage is the heavily fortified cities like Bakhmut which they built up in the occupied western Donbass. When Bakhmut falls, that’s the lynchpin in the last of the two Ukie defense lines. So British politicians have switched to calling the city small and insignificant. (They did this switch in the spring and summer too.) Before, it was a “lynchpin”. From which supplies are transported to the rest of the defense line.
After this Kiev has no natural defenses before Nikolaev and the Dniepr river. And THE ARMY THEY HAD IN THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IS NOW DEAD. Their most experiended officers in the field, dead.
Good luck with the new weapons. Or better yet, overthrow Zelensky and negotiate peace.
“The majority of fighting takes place in Donbass. People don’t know this.”
They should.
But presumably the Russian regime would rather people didn’t notice that they’re still f*cking around trying to secure Donbas, let alone get anything else done, after nearly ten months.
NATO spent 8 years training, fortifying and preparing Nazi’s for war. Its a tough nut to crack. A war of attrition is just that, a slow grinding of NATO specialists.
The good news is that Russia ran out of missiles 6 months ago.
From what I can tell, Russia no longer cares what westerners think about where the fighting is happening. Russia gains much from fighting in Donbass.
They are fighting in friendly territory.
They have short supply lines.
US has long supply lines.
Harder for the US to employ behind the lines covert operations.
They DO care about what people in non-western nations think. When we bragged about blowing up a building in Mariopol during the summer, the Russian response was on the lines of we are building civilian buildings in Ukraine while the US is destroying them. One of many reasons why nations like Saudi Arabia are turning AWAY from the US and TO Russia/China.
“…dropped amendments added to the House version that would have restricted weapons sales to countries accused of human rights abuses…” https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c8de4239b191f9f81d8030b87af8151200f5c5ea9ae33b0b4ca4a3f880fec3c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a700607ee08ab08bae351910aad0587b883f5d22391e9bca18ade8752e089067.jpg