Another Excessive and Wasteful Military Budget

The U.S. does not need to spend record-setting amounts of money to remain secure, and there is no good reason to throw even more money at the Pentagon.

Biden will propose an eye-watering $813 billion for “national security” spending, including $773 billion for the military:

President Joe Biden plans to request $813.3 billion in national security spending -- including $773 billion for the Pentagon -- in the federal budget he will send to Congress on Monday, according to officials familiar with the plan.

It’s an increase of $31 billion, or 4%, from approved spending for the current fiscal year and about $43 billion more than the White House budget office had projected a year ago for fiscal 2023.

The U.S. military budget is already exorbitant, and further increases are excessive and unwarranted. The U.S. does not need to spend record-setting amounts of money to remain secure, and there is no good reason to throw even more money at the Pentagon. If Russia’s war in Ukraine has proved anything so far, it is that the conventional threat from Russia is not as great as most believed, so it makes no sense to ramp up American military spending in response to that. Justin Logan and Ben Friedman made a similar argument last week:

As for capability, the shambolic Russian effort thus far in Ukraine is good news for Europe. If Russia were capable of conquering a chunk of Europe, it should have been able to quickly defeat Ukraine, with its 215,000 military personnel, more antiquated vehicles, and small air force.

Several European governments have moved to increase their military spending as well, so an increase by the U.S. is unnecessary and it is likely to discourage European allies from picking up more of the slack. We know that allies take advantage of U.S. profligacy by spending less than they might otherwise, and the surest way to discourage allies from taking up more of the responsibility for their own security is to keep raising U.S. military spending.