Our National Defense Strategy identifies China as the primary challenge to the United States. To confront this threat successfully, our military needs more warships, aircraft and munitions. Now.
But the Biden administration’s spending does not match its defense strategy. The president’s Emergency Supplemental Request made this clear by asking for $61.4 billion for Ukraine, but only $5.4 billion for the Indo-Pacific. In addition, the administration has made no attempt to cut spending elsewhere in the budget to help fund any part of the supplemental request.
There are many ways money can be saved within the Department of Defense, from programs that could be eliminated, to reforms that would make the department spend money more efficiently. Nondefense spending from within research and development, politicized spending on climate change and DEI, and wasteful bureaucratic bloat are all examples of Pentagon funding that needs to be reallocated toward building actual military capacity.
While some of the money necessary to pay for the military systems we need to deter China can be found within the Defense Department’s budget, there’s far more available elsewhere — in the wasteful spending that occurs across the federal budget.
What should this money go toward? Virginia class submarines, for starters.
These subs have been identified as one of the most important assets needed to deter China in the Western Pacific. But they don’t come cheap. In Fiscal Year 2023, they cost around $3.4 billion each. (The cost varies depending on additional systems installed. Moreover, the cost per unit goes down if more than one is purchased at a time.)
The new Constellation class of guided missile frigates are also crucial to the mission in the Indo-Pacific. They cost around $1.1 billion each, depending on the same variables.
If Congress is serious about funding a military capable of deterring China, plenty of big-ticket items outside the defense budget could be cut and reallocated to real military capacity. This administration’s Department of Homeland Security is paying $2.5 billion to house illegal immigrants, while spending only about $56 million to maintain family housing facilities for military service members. That money would be better spent on submarines or frigates.
Within the Defense Department budget itself, for fiscal year 2024 the Biden administration requested $5.1 billion to “mitigate climate risk.” Jamming this sort of nondefense, politicized spending into the defense budget is especially egregious. The department’s mission is to protect American national security interests, and these wasteful initiatives distract the military from carrying out its core mission.
Clearly, the administration thinks some things are worth the money. They’ll willingly request $113 billion for Ukraine and many billions more to other countries all around the globe. They’ll spend billions more on DEI and climate-change initiatives, and they’ll reward politically aligned left-wing groups with generous grants paid for by taxpayer dollars.
The issue is a lack of political will, seriously misguided priorities and an astounding mismanagement of resources.
Today’s United States military is stretched thin across multiple theaters and forced to spend billions on politicized initiatives that don’t enhance its ability to effectively wage war in the interests of the American people. Funding should flow from strategy, and strategy dictates that the United States focus its military spending on capabilities relevant to deterring China: warships, aircraft and munitions.
