Breaking Defense: Huge Deficit = Defense Budget Cuts? Maybe Not
The congressional calendar and strategic inertia may come together to keep the defense budget relatively high. The calendar helps because the fiscal 2021 defense budget will likely be passed while Congress is in a free-spending mood.
The current Washington consensus sees deep defense budget cuts in the face of soaring deficits driven by the emergency legislation to stabilize the American economy as it reels from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It may be wrong. The congressional calendar and strategic inertia may come together to keep the defense budget relatively high. The calendar helps because the fiscal 2021 defense budget will likely be passed while Congress is in a free-spending mood. The next administration — Republican or Democratic — will develop budgets beyond that, but the constraints of long-standing strategy will prevent major changes to force structure and acquisition that would drive deep budget cuts.
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WNU Editor: It depends on who will win the White House and Congress this year. I doubt that President Trump will cut the US defense budget. But a President Biden with a Democrat controlled Congress definitely will.
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The president could cut the budget by increasing it.
Increasing by inflation minus 1 percentage point (A big cut for government). That would make the Pentagon feel pain and yet not disembowel it. It would cause them to be more efficient.
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