I could be a lot more open to the BBB Act if Republicans showed that they were really interested in cutting spending.
There is certainly at least 10% waste, fraud, and abuse in the Defense budget.
And at a time when we are not involved in any wars around the world, when we are bringing troops home, and when we are insisting that foreign countries reimburse us for the expense of providing them military support, our budget needs do not require an increase.
We already spend almost 3 times as much as China (even when considering off-budget expenditures), and along with the EU, Australia, Canada and Mexico we spend $500 billion more than the next 20 countries combined including China, Russia, India and 17 other countries.
Even the US by itself spends more on defense than the next 12 countries (China, Russia, Germany, the UK, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Italy, Israel, and Ukraine), combined.
If we were to cut the defense budget by 10% to make it more efficient, we would save over $220 billion each year over the current budgeted levels. That would amount to over $2.2 Trillion in savings through 2034, sufficient to cover all of the tax cuts.
If the Republicans want support for cutting safety-net programs, let them propose defense spending cuts as well.
Regarding our defense spending, some are concerned that China is building ships faster than the US and has a navy that is by sheer numbers, larger than ours. That can be misleading. The US Navy operates 11 aircraft carriers, while China has only 2, and the US Navy operates 92 destroyers compared to the 50 in the Chinese fleet. The Chinese have more submarines than the US, but the US has far more advanced carrier-based aircraft.
I believe we do need to ask the question: “Are we preparing for a global war against China?”
A further issue is whether the current state of art for military assets is a good model for building future assets. We have seen in Ukraine how warfare is changing from on-ground armies to remotely launched cruise missles, drones, and smart ordinance.
Some examples:
We currently no longer maintain a mounted cavalry.
The rise of the use of aircraft carriers during WWII made battleships obsolete. All of the US battleships were mothballed.
The WWII era M-1 rifle was replaced by the M-14 and then the M-16.
Fighter planes used to have guns mounted for aerial combat. These have been made obsolete by radar-guided and heat-seeking armaments. Gun armament has been completely eliminated, except for some use for ground attack.