Banging the Drums of War: Republicans Promote an Increase In Military Spending

 This is my last post before I go on vacation. My next post will appear on July 2.

Banging the Drums of War

Republicans have started a push to increase military spending in the face of threats from Russia and China. Two opinion pieces by prominent Republican senators appeared in the New York Times on the 80^th anniversary of D-Day to persuade us that we should not repeat the “errors of the nineteen thirties.”

Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee says,

It is far past time to rebuild America’s military. We can avoid war by preparing for it.

On Wednesday I am publishing a plan that includes a series of detailed proposals to address this reality head-on. … My plan outlines why and how the United States should aim to spend an additional $55 billion on the military in the 2025 fiscal year and grow military spending from a projected 2.9 percent of our national gross domestic product this year to 5 percent over the next five to seven years.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s minority leader says,

It should not take another catastrophic attack like Pearl Harbor to wake today’s isolationists from the delusion that regional conflicts have no consequences for the world’s most powerful and prosperous nation. …

I was encouraged by the plan laid out last week by my friend, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, which detailed specific actions the president and colleagues in Congress should take to prepare America for long-term strategic competition.

How Will They Pay For The Military Buildup?

I do not wish to quarrel with the analysis presented by Wicker and McConnell. That is a discussion for another day. However, I would like to point out that nowhere do they say how they will pay for the military buildup that they propose. The military buildup that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor was supported by high taxes and by rationing civilian consumption but Wicker and McConnell along with their party have consistently supported low taxes and minimal government interference in civilian markets.

I fear that, instead of raising taxes or rationing civilian consumption to support the military buildup, the Republicans will use it as an excuse to dismantle important domestic programs. They will provide less money for education, healthcare, environmental protection, industrial policy and other domestic programs in order to finance military production. We are already spending too little in such areas, and we cannot allow a need for defense spending to destroy our already insufficient efforts.

Don't Destroy Our Society Or Our World To Save Them From the Chinese or the Russians

If we fail to educate our children or if we fail to deal effectively with global warming in order to defeat the threat presented by Russia and China, we will achieve at best a Pyrrhic Victory. If we deter Chinese military threats while allowing our industrial base to wither away, what will we have won? We do not want to destroy our society or our planet merely in order to prevent others from destroying them. If Wicker and McConnell are right, they need to tell us how they will pay for the buildup they propose without destroying our society or our planet.