February 16, 2020
Donald Trump Has Made the U.S. Military Stronger
Even for those of us who don’t care much for the president’s overall foreign policy, it must be acknowledged that the Trump defense buildup, with bipartisan backing in Congress, is achieving some clear good.
by Michael O'Hanlon
The Trump defense buildup is dead. Long live the Trump buildup!
For Fiscal Year 2021, President Trump has just requested $6 billion less for national defense than what the Democratic House and Republican Senate recently approved, and he signed into law, for 2020. The administration claims funding will actually roughly hold steady next year, since it promises not to raid the defense budget as much for the border wall. But inflation will still eat away at the new numbers. Real defense funding would decline by some 2 percent in 2020—at a time when military leaders are on record saying they need consistent annual real growth of 3 to 5 percent to carry out their plans (and independent analysts like those at CBO agree).
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/donald-trump-has-made-us-military-stronger-124136
