Inflation Is the New Sequestration
Congress must shore up the Pentagon’s eroded buying power.
DUSTIN WALKER and MACKENZIE EAGLEN | APRIL 1, 2022 09:00 AM ET
As the Pentagon asks Congress for $30 billion more for fiscal year 2023 over enacted appropriations for this year, inflation is at the center of a defense-spending battle brewing on Capitol Hill. It’s injecting uncertainty and risk in the Pentagon’s budgeting and planning. And it’s dividing lawmakers on the size of the defense budget just as global threats are on the rise.
Red-hot inflation makes America’s military poorer overnight. American servicemembers and their families are feeling the squeeze of inflation—last month, it hit nearly 8 percent— just like their fellow Americans out of uniform. Proposed to grow at just half the rate of inflation, the Pentagon’s budget will feel the squeeze as well. The proposed nominal 4.1 percent increase in the defense budget may have counted as generous in ordinary times. But these are not ordinary times.
The Pentagon’s comptroller recently claimed inflation’s impact on the Pentagon budget will be less severe than on the broader economy, though he acknowledged the Pentagon’s recent record of underestimating inflation. But no matter how “defense inflation” is calculated, the reality is clear: due to inflation and other cost pressures, each defense dollar is buying less capability to defend the nation than before.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/04/inflation-new-sequestration/363879/
