Donald Trump’s military spending ask was for $733 Billion…..
Most people and Republicans have forgotten that there STILL is a sequester law o0n the books….
If theRepublicans forgot the spending limit?
Democrats haven’t…
The top spending for the US Military SHOULD be limited to $576 Billion….
Nancy Pelosi, the old timer, KNOWS she now has a wedge to use against the Republicans….
We’ll see what happens….
That $733 B figure is probably not gonna make it though…..
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he expects a lawmakers to clash once again over the balance between discretionary and entitlement spending.
“The real challenge for this country is when are you going to acknowledge the problem you have with your fiscal glide path … on the mandatory side of the spending,” Womack said, referring to entitlements.
A survey conducted by the Ronald Reagan Institute in the weeks following the November midterm election found about 75 percent of Americans favor increases in defense spending. Younger citizens and Democrats are among the least likely to favor increased military spending, according to the survey.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has said he plans to trim the defense budget, to include spending on nuclear weapons . Womack said he expects Democrats to begin defense spending negotiations at a level much lower than that, closer to what the spending caps will dictate.
“The starting point is not going to be $700 billion,” Womack said. “The starting point is the sequester number.”
By law, defense spending is capped at $576 billion in fiscal 2020. So, assuming lawmakers passed a White House request for $733 billion, along with a $73 billion Overseas Contingency Operations request for cap-exempt war spending, then about $84 billion would be cut through sequestration, according to Capital Alpha Partners’ Byron Callan. If a $700 billion budget is presented, about $53 billion would have to be cut.
Last month, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said if the Pentagon’s budget shrinks from $733 billion to $700 billion, it would likely mean slowing new weapon buys and planned increases to the size of the military…..