Biden ups Pentagon budget despite party opposition

The administration of US President Joe Biden is reportedly planning to increase the Pentagon's budget despite opposition from progressive Democrats favoring steep cuts to the military spending.

Three people familiar with the US budget plan told American news website Politico that the Biden administration plans to request $715 billion for the Pentagon this coming year, a modest increase from the current level but below the level projected by the previous administration in its final budget.

The sources said the planned fiscal 2022 budget topline is undergoing a small rise from the more than $704 billion allocated by lawmakers for this fiscal year but it is unlikely to satisfy both factions of Republican hawks seeking to continue major increases in the US military spending and the Democrats who want to witness sharp decline in the country’s military budget.

The broad outlines of the fiscal 2022 budget plan, which is to be released on Friday, would mark a roughly 1.5 percent increase in military spending from the current year’s level, making it effectively an inflation-adjusted budget boost.

“Though a slight increase from the current level, the topline would still be less than the $722 billion forecast by the Trump administration in its final budget submission,” the American news website wrote. “The shift would force several billion dollars in cuts from what Pentagon budgeteers had anticipated requesting.”

The budget plan, approved by the Senate in December, is to be released at a time that top Republicans have over the past weeks ratcheted up their offensive, warning Biden against stagnant or reduced military spending and slamming Democrats seeking defense cuts.

US Senate approves mammoth military budget

The United States Senate has approved a massive annual military budget amid forecasts of a new Cold War.

The top Republicans on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), have thrown their weight behind increases, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned that Biden’s seriousness on countering what they claimed “China’s threat” will be judged by how robust his military spending plan is.

Democrats, however, pursue aggressive cuts to the Pentagon budget and prefer redirecting the money toward diplomacy and domestic programs, which Biden and his party argues are more urgent.

Fifty House Democrats called on Biden in a letter last month to request a “significantly reduced” Pentagon budget, and said the military budget could be slashed by more than 10 percent without impacting national security.

Are US and China heading into a new cold war?

Experts warn that the two rivals are potentially heading into a new “cold war” that could prove damaging to the global economy.

Last year, the notion of a new and emerging Cold War was brought up at the UN General Assembly by then-US President Donald Trump who used the occasion to fire a barrage of allegations against the Chinese, ranging from the origins of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, to its ever emerging, and stronger economy.

The US and China have the largest military budgets in the world each year, together spending more than the annual military budget of all the countries of the world combined.

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