Tough Love From the Pentagon to Congress

Mackenzie Eaglen

Politics, Americas

The new budget nudges them into some choices.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is smartly trying to prep the political battlefield by getting in front of emotional reactions to defense cuts with thoughtful analysis and rationale. Last night, the Pentagon sent a short report to Congress previewing controversial changes in the budget due to Capitol Hill on February 10.

Nothing was spared the ax in the spending accounts that fall outside of the military services. Basically, every enterprise-wide agency took a hit, which was part of the plan to flood the zone.

But this approach was also necessary to demonstrate the Pentagon’s commitment to its strategy. It was likewise done out of necessity since even with recent and substantial defense budget increases, money is still tight.

Losers

Pentagon leaders were quick to point out that there are no real losers in this review of work that is done outside of the uniformed services. A key line from the report states explicitly, “the impacted programs were not wasteful nor mismanaged, they were simply not [strategy] priorities.”

This now puts the burden on Congress because they’ve said they are all-in on the new defense strategy. But can politicians go so far as to approve cuts to cherished priorities to support the long-term competition with China and Russia?

Examples of impacted programs include health care, military schools and commissaries, Special Operations Command, missile defense and space development agencies, and the cutting-edge office known as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).