On the floor, a widely reported memo authored by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth seems to name for important cuts to the huge U.S. army price range over every of the following 5 years — a proposal that shortly acquired optimistic suggestions from some progressives.
However the particulars of Hegseth’s proposal, and a public statement from the protection secretary’s deputy, increase critical doubts about whether or not the floated spending “cuts” can be cuts in any respect.
The Washington Put up reported Wednesday that Hegseth, in an inside memo, “ordered senior leaders on the Pentagon and all through the U.S. army to develop plans for slicing 8% from the protection price range in every of the following 5 years.” Hegseth instructed officers handy of their proposals by this coming Monday.
In response to the Put up’s reporting, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), lengthy a vocal proponent of slicing the army price range because it approaches $1 trillion a yr with bipartisan approval, wrote on social media that “when the Pentagon can’t full an unbiased audit, we should always lower army spending by 8% a yr over the following 5 years.”
“These financial savings ought to go to growing Social Safety advantages and strengthening VA healthcare,” Sanders added.
That isn’t what the administration seems to take note of.
In a statement issued Wednesday as headlines in main media shops characterised Hegseth’s memo as a hanging name for “cuts,” Appearing Deputy Protection Secretary Robert Salesses described the proposal as a push for “offsets” that might be used to fund different military-related efforts favored by President Donald Trump, together with an “Iron Dome for America” that consultants have ridiculed as a wasteful “fantasy.”
“The division will develop an inventory of potential offsets that might be used to fund these priorities, in addition to to refocus the division on its core mission of deterring and successful wars,” stated Salesses. “The offsets are focused at 8% of the Biden administration’s FY26 price range, totaling round $50 billion, which is able to then be spent on packages aligned with President Trump’s priorities.”
The U.S. army price range for Fiscal 12 months 2025 is roughly $850 billion.
I don’t perceive the tales concerning the supposed cuts to the protection price range. For those who “lower” elements of the protection price range and say you’re going to spend that cash on a missile protection system…. that’s not likely slicing the protection price range?
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) February 19, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Hegseth’s memo additionally reportedly exempts greater than a dozen classes from getting used for offsets, together with nuclear weapon modernization, army operations on the southern U.S. border, and one-way assault drones.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said Wednesday that “there’s loads of alternative — and a determined want for — deep cuts in Pentagon spending, if that’s in actual fact what Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth is proposing.”
“Nonetheless, it appears that evidently this announcement could quantity to a money-moving train throughout the company itself relatively than an total Pentagon topline discount,” stated Weissman. “The Hegseth proposal wrongly exempts 17 classes from cuts, together with areas which can be ripe for financial savings and which ought to themselves be curtailed within the identify of nationwide safety, just like the nation’s nuclear arsenal, missile protection, and drones. These protected classes give clues to the administration’s priorities that could be disguised in partial stories concerning the Hegseth memo: elevated militarization and ever-increasing company earnings.”
“It’s too quickly to know precisely what the Hegseth proposal entails, or if it will ship precise cuts, and so not potential to subject even a preliminary evaluation,” he added. “However this a lot stays clear: It’s time to chop — not enhance — the Pentagon price range, and to dedicate the financial savings to human wants.”
The main points of Hegseth’s memo emerged as Trump threw his support behind a Home GOP price range blueprint that requires a $100 billion enhance in U.S. army spending, underscoring the administration’s contradictory posture on the problem.
CNN noted Wednesday that “Hegseth himself referred to as for a rise to the protection price range one week in the past.”
“Whereas visiting Stuttgart, Germany,” the outlet reported, “Hegseth stated, ‘I feel the U.S. must spend greater than the Biden administration was prepared to, who traditionally underinvested within the capabilities of our army.’”
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