Congress should play a leading a role in steering the United States toward a strategically prudent and responsible missile defense policy one that maximizes U.S. national security interests while averting an unnecessary nuclear arms race at a time when conventional challenges loom large.
Most observers had expected an increase in the Navy's shipbuilding accounts with this budget, especially after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said that, even as an Army general, he would support budget increases for the Navy and Air Force in light of the Chinese threat. But this budget decommissions 12 ships and buys relatively few replacements.
The idea that Congress can continue to increase pay and benefits while cutting everything else will create a hollow force unable to achieve its missions.
Biden goes ‘full steam ahead’ on Trump’s nuclear expansion despite campaign rhetoric The decision to retain a low-yield warhead that was outfitted on submarine-launched ballistic missiles in 2019, and to initiate research into a new sea-launched cruise missile, has sparked an outcry. Politico, By LARA SELIGMAN, BRYAN BENDER and CONNOR O’BRIEN, 06/02/2021 President Joe Biden ran on a platform opposing…
Nicholas Kamm/Associated Press
President Joe Biden s first defense budget, totalling $752.9 billion, continues a Trump effort to modernize US nuclear forces.
That modernization could cost upward of $1.5 trillion over 15 years, and Biden s plan will only add to simmering debate about whether the US needs those nukes.
For those anticipating a significant shift in national priorities in the wake of the huge increase in defense expenditures during the last administration to the tune of some $100 billion over four years President Joe Biden s fiscal year 2022 national defense budget is a major disappointment.
On Friday, the Biden administration submitted its fiscal year 2022 budget request with a whopping $752.9 billion set aside for national defense, $715 billion of which is designated for the Pentagon. The proposed funding actually increases defense expenditures by some $11 billion from the Trump years.