By Tyler Pager
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon requested $534 billion for 2016 on Monday as part of President Barack Obama’s budget, $35 billion dollars above the caps set by Congress in the automatic spending cuts. In addition, it proposed $51 billion for overseas contingency operations.
However, the Republican-controlled Congress is likely to take issue with Obama’s $4 trillion budget proposal that looks to increase revenue through raising taxes on the wealthy while going beyond spending caps set by Congress in 2011.
“At funding levels lower than the president is proposing especially at full sequestration cap levels, our defense strategy will become brittle and more prone to breaking,” said Bob Work, deputy secretary of defense. “The leaders of this department believe firmly that any reduction in funding below what is in the president’s budget or a broad denial of the reform initiatives that we have proposed to Congress will make the overall risk to the strategy unmanageable.”
The total Defense Department budget reflects a $25 billion increase from 2015, with a focus on modernizing the armed services ability to respond to new security challenges.
Bob Work, deputy secretary of defense, discussed Monday the importance of Congress approving the Pentagon’s budget. (Tyler Pager/MNS)
It is unlikely the Pentagon will receive the complete funding because of the political gridlock in Congress, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow of defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He said increasing the budget would force Congress and the White House to compromise on issues they have not agreed on previously.
“The issue of the level of defense spending is directly tied to these other hot-button political issues of the proper level of nondefense spending in the federal budget and taxes,” Harrison said.
However, even the proposed budget will strain the defense forces because the military still has not had the opportunity to reset after fighting a 13-year war, Work said. Further, he said operations and maintenance costs continue to rise at rates above inflation and the volatile security environment is presenting new threats such as the Islamic State.
When asked how the strategy would change if the automatic spending cuts were enforced, Work said he could give specific examples on how many fewer ships or planes they could buy, but declined to elaborate on specific changes in strategy that would be necessary.
“It’s a constant Rubik’s cube, trying to figure out what the best mix of capabilities, capacities and readiness,” he said.
Christopher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the military is capable of defending the country with a $500 billion budget, which is what they would receive even under sequestration.
“That’s a lot of money. That’s far more than any country in the world spends by at least a factor of three,” he said. “There are sensible reforms that are out there that are more likely to be implemented if there is some pressure at the top line.”
