Republicans in the House are divided over a deal Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made with conservative GOP members to secure enough votes to win the speakership that could potentially bring this year’s military budget down by about $75 billion, although the chances of the cut making it through Congress are unlikely.
One of the concessions McCarthy made was to hold a vote on capping government spending at fiscal 2022 levels, which would bring the military budget down to $782 billion, significantly lower than the $857 billion approved for 2023.
It wasn’t clear if military spending would be included in the potential budget cut, but Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) appeared to confirm that it would be. “We got a $32 trillion debt. Everything has to be on the table,” Jordan said when asked about military spending on “Fox News Sunday.”
Other Republicans denied that military spending would be on the chopping block, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who was involved in cutting a deal with McCarthy. “[D]uring negotiations, cuts to defense were NEVER DISCUSSED,” Roy’s office wrote on Twitter, according to POLITICO. “In fact, there was broad agreement spending cuts should focus on NON-DEFENSE discretionary spending.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) criticized the deal McCarthy made with conservatives and said she doesn’t “want to see defense cuts.”
Realistically, a vote to bring military spending back down to 2022 levels has very little chance of passing through the House and Senate. Enough House Republicans would be opposed to the idea, as well as the majority of Democrats, although some progressives favor slashing the military budget.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said the prospect of cutting the Pentagon budget was “pretty exciting,” and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) also expressed support for the idea. “I think it is absurd we are going to have almost a trillion dollar defense budget … And if they’re going to look at that and make certain cuts, then let’s have that conversation,” Khanna said.
Defense spending will not be cut at this time. It simply is not going to happen. Putin’s threats against the US and NATO has insured an increase in spending.
Does a gnome 6 inches tall frighten you? If you’re 6 ft tall that’s about the ratio of US to Russian military spending. Rethink who is threatening who there scardycat.
That does not matter. What matters is that Putin and Russia has made threats. Thus the increase in the defense budget. That is how things work.
They said something mean about us so we destroy our economy?
That’ll show them!
This message from Bizarro World is brought to you by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
That is interesting. So how did Raytheon and Lockheed Martin get Putin to make his threats?
They used the toilet roll holder method
If he’s working for them in the same way our pols do, they probably just bribed him. 😏
Biden’s threats against Russia and China are bankrupting the US.
If we’re lucky, bankruptcy will happen soon enough to prevent Armageddon. But probably not.
Why would Putin’s threats matter? Do we need 10 times Russia’s defense budget? Oh wait, we already have that. In fact, we could cut our budget by around $200 billion and still spend 10 times as much as them. And that’s just us.
Your missing the point. The people who want more military spending will get it thanks to Putin’s threats. It is that simple.
The people who want more military spending will get it regardless. There’s always an Enemy of the Week available to justify more military spending.
True. But Putin is sure making it easy for the military spenders.
You are right, I did miss your point. Judging by your other comments here, it was justified.
These people are all too horrible for words. Sitting in a cosy, rather splendiferous building in DC (or not, maybe tooling around wherever, being oiled by lobbyists, donors) pontificating endlessly, displaying their egos. They live in a parallel universe playing Monopoly, stealing money from the Bank, passing Go and collecting nice salaries, raking in $$ from rents/utilities/etc. And never ever going to Jail for not paying Taxes, for instance, unlike those of us who exist in the far more mundane, downscale afterlife of Uplift.
Kleptocracy leading to destruction of the American dollar and economy.
A ‘First World Country’ in its way down the ladder….
32 Ttttttrillion dollars in debt? Most people would get fired over something like this.
And yet, we keep sending the same people back to Congress. Why?
The weapons of wars rackets are big contributors to political warmongers.
McCarthy made so many promises to get enough votes, I’m sure he promised less spending and more spending. Guess which one will prevail?
If McCarthy doesn’t live up to his concessions, they should absolutely call his bluff and start a no confidence vote, and let’s go get a new speaker that will actually cut the monstrously bloated MIC budget. Nobody voted for half of their tax dollars going to the war department.
Good luck with getting a new speaker. What is to prevent McCarthy from convincing the Democratic Hawks to vote to keep him as the speaker in return for no defense spending cuts?