One Big Winner of the Budget

One Big Winner of the Budget

AC Christopherson

American Foreign Policy

February 7, 2017

Op Ed Week 6

One Big Winner of the Budget

The U.S. government has been making more and more short term continuing appropriations to prevent the government from shutting down. On Wednesday morning it was announced that the Senate reached a bipartisan budget to prevent a looming government shutdown on Thursday. Both the White House and Speaker Paul Ryan have come out in support of the proposed budget. This calls for an increase of $300 billion to the already existing debt and raising the debt ceiling as well. I believe that the one big winner of the budget is the military and other countries should take note. 
Budget talks have been going on since the last government shutdown three weeks ago. The reason why the U.S. government shutdown at that time was because Congressman couldn’t agree on spending nor come to an agreement about DACA. The United States hasn’t had a budget at the beginning of the year since 2015. Since December 2017, three continuing appropriation acts were passed to keep the government going. Senators Schumer and McConnell were able to reach a bipartisan budget which has portions that speak for both parties. With the Speaker of the House on board, saying “America will be safer and stronger because of this agreement”, all signs point to it reaching the President’s desk rather soon. Showing a united front for the United States would be good on the international given all the turmoil that has been occurring surrounding the budget.

The overall budget increases spending by $300 billion for both foreign and domestic programs. The Pentagon will get an additional $80 billion this year and $85 billion next year. This in total is $165 billion in the next two years which is the largest increase since 2011. In 2011 Republicans in Congress were able to raise the strict caps on military spending as part of a deal with then President Barack Obama. The deal suspends the debt ceiling, which the federal government had been due to reach within the next month, until March 2019. By pushing the date to 2019 hopefully this will make it easier to get things moving in Congress. It allows for the midterm elections to take place and be settled. 

A long-term spending agreement had long been sought by military leaders. They had been warning Congress that the recent series of short-term funding bills were harming military readiness. Every time the government such downs ships remain out as sea but trainings are stalled. This back and forth also puts strain on military families as well. Defense Secretary Mattis spoke at the White House speaking about the potential consequences on the military if a budget didn’t go through this year. According to Mattis, pay wouldn’t be provided to all of the troops, recruitment would suffer resulting in , ships and aircraft would suffer, trainings to deter war would suffer, and contracts for modern force would be delayed. Given this, I feel it would make sense for other nations to be invested or at least to have been watching the budget talks to see if the United States military would weaken as Mattis pointed out. Mattis suggests the military would take a rather large hit without funding, and lead to weaker military in which Americans nor other nations would be used to seeing.

President Trump has been very vocal about his support of the troops and strengthening our military. In his own budget the President requested $26 billion less than what Congress has given in this budget. Even though the President seems to be leaning towards a more isolationist foreign policy this increase in spending would show the rest of world that the U.S. is ready for battle if necessary. Obviously, the President is elated and feels this will make the military stronger than it has ever been. He tweeted out, “The Budget Agreement today is so important for our great Military. It ends the dangerous sequester and gives Secretary Mattis what he needs to keep America Great. Republicans and Democrats must support our troops and support this Bill!”. I believe this big win of a major increase in spending for the military, will indeed enhance our power when it comes to foreign policy and have other nations on edge waiting to see what action, if any, is taken.