When the White House announces its full 2018 defense budget on Tuesday, it will become clearer if the proposed funds will be enough to match the "massive" military buildup proposed by President Donald Trump, the Washington Examiner reported on Monday.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry has warned that "the budget outline that [the Office of Management and Budget released that total national defense baseline spending would be $603 billion]… is not enough to keep the promises the president has made to fix our military and to expand."
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments research fellow Katherine Blakeley makes a similar assessment, saying Trump's "historic characterization of [the military buildup] is largely marketing smoke and mirrors."
She explained that about $36 billion of the $54 billion the administration claims as an increase will go to military priorities that were already penciled in from last year's Obama administration budget.
In addition, CNN reported that Defense Secretary James Mattis has privately told congressmen that Trump's proposed Pentagon budget falls short of covering the total cost of his promised rebuild.
Thornberry and Sen. John McCain have both insisted that a $640 billion baseline national defense budget is the minimum needed for an effective buildup.
Center for National Defense at the Heritage Foundation director Thomas Spoehr agreed with that view, telling the Examiner that "when you get much less than that [$640 billion], your aspirations have to get ratcheted way back."
Although military leaders have warned about the consequences of not significantly boosting funding, they also appear to realize that there will be no quick fix.
"We're not going to get well in a single year, we know that," said Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who is Trump's only confirmed service secretary. "So this is going to be a recovery over a period of time."
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