This dramatic escalation in military spending is a recipe for more waste, fraud, and abuse
Although President Trump vowed during his campaign to eliminate war profiteers from Washington and tasked Elon Musk with reducing government size, some may find it surprising that on Wednesday, through a social media statement, he advocated for raising the Pentagon’s budget to $1.5 trillion. This would represent an unprecedented military spending hike, unmatched since the buildup for World War II.
The suggestion is plainly illogical and highly doubtful to stem from a thorough evaluation of America’s future defense requirements. This plan would add an estimated $5.8 trillion to the national debt over ten years, as reported by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget.
This proposal clearly contradicts the cost-saving goals of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In fact, the proposed $500 billion increase in Pentagon spending would exceed all of the claimed budget reductions by DOGE, even based on the agency’s own inflated figures. This $500 billion boost would surpass the entire military budgets of any nation worldwide and even exceed the combined military spending of China, Russia, and Iran.
Currently, the Pentagon’s budget is already massive at about $1 trillion annually, with over half of that amount allocated to defense contractors, and much more lost through inefficiency, fraud, and abuse. The precise fraction of taxpayer funds wasted remains unknown, given that the Pentagon has never passed an audit.
It is evident that resources are squandered annually on flawed, unnecessary, or problematic programs such as the F-35 fighter jet, vulnerable $13 billion aircraft carriers, the elusive leak-proof Golden Dome missile defense, and a sweeping plan to spend up to $2 trillion on new nuclear weapons over the coming two decades.
Compounding the issue, the Pentagon has been moving to undermine its independent weapons testing office and diminish oversight of oversized weapons contractors, creating ideal conditions for escalating waste, fraud, and abuse. Underlying this continual overspending is America’s intensely militarized and globally interventionist strategy designed to maintain rapid response capabilities anywhere in the world.
President Trump also asserted that his $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget plan would create our “dream military.” More realistically, it would open the door to flagrant waste and support ill-advised and perilous military operations such as the occupation of Venezuela.
Despite a Congress that has routinely approved the Pentagon’s requests, the $1.5 trillion figure is unlikely to be endorsed. If the goal is a more secure nation, then efforts should instead focus on decreasing the defense budget, guided by a wiser, more restrained approach, and adopting more disciplined methods in the design, development, and production of military equipment.
Original article: responsiblestatecraft.org
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