Today, we’re running an editorial criticizing President Biden’s defense budget proposal. While I am sympathetic to the portion of the argument that pertains to Biden misallocating the money that he is spending, I must dissent from the call for “sustained increase in defense spending of 5 percent above inflation,” for reasons I laid out in more detail earlier this month.
We’re coming out of a pandemic that drove debt to over 100 percent of the gross domestic product for the first time since World War II. Unlike World War II, however, when debt receded once the emergency was over, it is now on track to continue to grow thanks to fiscal mismanagement in general and the crush of entitlement spending in particular.
It’s been a decade since Republicans even proposed doing anything about entitlement spending, and until that issue is addressed, it is simply irresponsible to talk about dramatically boosting defense spending.
I get the arguments for the importance of national defense, which is a core, constitutional, and legitimate function of the federal government. But I have spent decades arguing for Republicans to get serious about entitlement spending, and repeatedly warned them that if these programs are not put on a sustainable trajectory it will continue to crowd out defense spending. Now that all of that is coming true, there’s still a push to increase defense spending and less interest than ever before in confronting our long-term fiscal challenges.
If heeded, the calls for more defense spending now, coupled with inaction on entitlements, will make us less secure in the long run, given the implications for national security of a fiscal crisis that diminishes our economic standing in the world and requires immediate, savage, cuts to federal spending.
I’m all for a strong defense — but it must be accompanied by a strong balance sheet.