McConnell: Failure to reach spending deal a 'disaster' for national defense

Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning that failure to reach a spending deal with critical adjustments for federal spending levels and priorities would be a “recipe for disaster” because it would hamstring the Pentagon’s ability to respond to changing national security threats.

McConnell warned that a yearlong continuing resolution, which would essentially keep in place the funding levels and priorities of the fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills, would leave the nation ill-prepared to counter Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and other adversaries.

“Never in recent history has Washington forced the U.S. military to spend a full year applying yesterday’s budget to tomorrow’s challenges. Today, we’re closer than ever to making ignoble history on this front,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, referring to the growing momentum on Capitol Hill for passing a yearlong continuing resolution in the absence of a budget deal for the long-delayed 2025 spending bills.

McConnell argued that defaulting to a yearlong spending stopgap would fail to keep pace with inflation and force the military to prepare for “next year’s threats at this year’s prices.

“Consumer goods aren’t the only things that have grown more expensive in recent years. In times of high inflation, governance without updated appropriations means diminished Pentagon buying power. Forcing the U.S. military to equip itself for next year’s threats at this year’s prices with last year’s dollars is a recipe for disaster,” he wrote.

McConnell acknowledged that the Department of Government Efficiency is combing the Pentagon’s budget to achieve “new efficiencies and cost-savings” but he cautioned that “effective military acquisitions continue to require multiyear runways.”

“A truly clean, full-year, continuing resolution at the level set for FY2024 would mean no new starts on critical programs the military needs to adapt to a rapidly changing battlefield, such as directed-energy drone and missile defenses,” he warned. “No new starts this year means fewer new capabilities in war fighters’ hands two, five and 10 years from now.”

The veteran Kentucky lawmaker warned that Congress is “careening over” a “cliff,” pointing out that failure to pass a full-year defense appropriations bill by the March 14 funding deadline would cost American taxpayers $17 billion in defense buying power.

Given the rate of inflation and the cost of new defense requirements, he calculated it would amount to a defense spending shortfall of $103 million per day.

“Consigning the rest of the fiscal year to this austere reality would only compound the damage,” he warned.

He wrote that extending the Pentagon’s 2024 budget through the end of fiscal year 2025 would mean the Defense Department would lack the funds to make payroll for 2 million service members and likely require siphoning funds away from other missions and capabilities to cover the shortfall.

And he said stretching fiscal year 2024 funding levels through the rest of this year would mean “no money or authorization for 168 new programs — many of which are required to outcompete China in space and cyberspace.”

He said that would mean halting the construction and refueling of up to 26 Navy warships and delay the production of three new destroyers, 10 new Virginia-class submarines and four new Columbia-class submarines.

“The costs of deterring war pale in comparison to the costs of fighting one. If Congress is unwilling to make deterrent investments today, then discussions about urgency of looming threats — particularly the ‘pacing threat’ of China — carries little weight,” he argued.

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