Republican legislators are not seeing eye to eye when it comes to defense spending, considering that there are those who would like to increase the budget, while some take a conservative stance due to a looming debt.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), both top Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), want an increase in the defense budget. However, according to The Hill, some conservatives do not share their position.
The battle will be at the forefront of Senate deliberations when the annual National Defense Authorization Act is debated next month. The main argument for increasing defense spending is to deter threats from three countries: Russia, China and Iran.
Although the much-anticipated budget debate will be next month, both McConnell and Wicker are already gearing up for it, calling for major increases in the budget beyond what President Joe Biden, proposed for 2025, along with Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the House Appropriations Committee Chair.
On the other side of the fence, opposing significant defense spending increases, are small groups of conservatives in both Congress and the Senate.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has been very open in opposing defense spending increases, accused Wicker of wanting to “explode” the defense budget.
“Big spending Republicans want to explode the military budget. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: both parties are to blame for the $34T debt!” Paul wrote on X.
Aside from Paul, other senators who share the same sentiment about being conservative with the country’s defense budget are Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
Just last year, the three of them introduced legislation that would require the Department of Defense to submit an independent audit. In addition, any defense component that is unable to complete a clean audit will be compelled to return one percent of its budget to the Treasury Department.
Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) also recently led Senate Republicans in opposing a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine.
“I voted against this package in the Senate and remain opposed to virtually any proposal for the United States to continue funding this war. Mr. Biden has failed to articulate even basic facts about what Ukraine needs and how this aid will change the reality on the ground,” he said in an op-ed in the New York Times.
