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March 28 (UPI) — President Joe Biden is set Monday to unveil his budget for the 2023 fiscal year — which is set to include an increase in military spending.
The president plans to request $813.3 billion in national security spending, including $773 billion for the Pentagon, Bloomberg reported.
The reported defense spending proposal marks an increase of $31 billion, or 4%, from approved spending in the current fiscal year and about $43 billion more than the White House budget office projected last year for the 2023 fiscal year.
It also falls short of a request from a group of 40 Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who sent a letter requesting that Biden increase military spending by 5% — saying that “threats to our national security have grown exponentially” during the past year.
Citing Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and increased militarization in China, the lawmakers urged Biden to “target investments in programs that will modernize the force and fill ongoing readiness gaps,” including cybersecurity and naval and projection forces.
“If we do not make the investments our military needs today, we will not be able to defend our nation or our allies in the future,” the lawmakers wrote. “The security of the free world depends on a credible American military. We must work together to ensure the men and women of our Armed Services have the resources and support they need to successfully carry out their missions now and for decades to come.”
President Joe Biden leaves the Holy Trinity Church in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI
Last year, Biden asked for $715 billion for defense spending for fiscal 2022 — which was a decrease from the amount former President Donald Trump requested for 2021 in his final year in office.
Biden’s budget proposal is also expected to include a proposal for a “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” that would impose a 20% tax on all households worth more than $100 million and impact the 700 richest people in the United States.
Monday’s budget proposal comes in the face of rising inflation which rose by 7.9% in the 12 months ending in February, the steepest 12-month increase since 1982.
The administration’s inflation assumptions included in the budget proposal are expected to be a key item in the budget proposal, analysts told MarketWatch.
“Too low an inflation estimate and it won’t be believable, but too high and it will become political ammunition for Republicans,” they wrote.
Biden is also expected to target various key domestic policy needs as his Build Back Better Act is stalled in Congress amid opposition from Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
It also remains unclear whether Manchin, Sinema and other members of Congress will support the proposals laid out in Biden’s budget as they must approve the funding in a series of spending bills throughout the year.
Traditionally, the president’s budget is merely a request from Congress as lawmakers are the ones who create and pass legislation setting the parameters of government spending.
