Republicans fight over defense spending cuts ahead of House rules package vote
Mike Brest
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Defense spending has emerged as a key debate among Republicans as House lawmakers get set to vote on a new House rules package Monday evening.
The proposals include capping defense spending at the 2022 level for the next 10 years, which would amount to a roughly $75 billion, or 10%, cut to defense programs. House Republicans have a small majority in the House, and several conservatives already drew out the speaker vote until they gained significant concessions from Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) before he finally won the speakership on the 15th ballot.
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One House Republican has already announced his intention to vote against the House rules package, making McCarthy’s margin for defectors even smaller.
“This has a proposed billions of dollars cut to defense, which I think is a horrible idea,” Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “When you have aggressive Russia and Ukraine, you’ve got a growing threat of China in the Pacific — you know, I’m going to visit Taiwan here in a couple of weeks — how am I going to look at our allies in the eye and say, I need you to increase your defense budget, but yet America is going to decrease ours?”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) also told CBS, “I don’t want to see defense cuts,” though she said she was unsure about how she’ll vote.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a House Freedom Caucus leader, confirmed that defense spending is at risk of being cut, as is “everything” due to the country’s debt. He said, “Maybe if we focused on that, helping the troops who do so much of the work out there for our great country, and maybe focus on getting rid of all the woke policies in our military, we’d have the weapons systems and the training that needs to be done so we’re ready to deal with our adversaries around the planet.”
Conservatives since the beginning of the Biden administration have criticized the military for ushering in a new era emphasizing diversity and inclusion, as Jordan referenced.
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“This push to defund our military in the name of politics is senseless and out of line with our national security needs,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “There is bipartisan opposition to defense cuts because making us less capable of keeping the American people safe and advancing our national security interests would be a profound mistake that our nation cannot afford.”
McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel after 15 votes. This speaker’s vote was the first in a century in which a candidate did not reach the majority threshold needed to assume the role.