The Pentagon's budget is not big enough national debt be damned.

That is essentially what Republican Senator Mitch McConnell declared yesterday, saying

if anything substantial increases in the defense budget are in order.

The defense budget ought to reflect the nature of the threat.

We have the ongoing challenge of meeting China in the future.

And clearly in this environment we need to continue to plus up the defense.

McConnell isn't asking Congress to do anything new.

The House and Senate have a substantial bipartisan history of plusing up the defense budget.

Take the most recent omnibus spending package passed in December 2022.

It's $1.7 trillion.

The Pentagon alone gets half the pie, a record $858 billion.

Every other federal agency, together, received a total of $772 billion.

And by the way, that $858 billion is more than the DOD asked for.

Congress plused up the DOD's budget by 10%.

The Biden administration had requested only a 4% defense increase in its budget proposal.

Meanwhile, that same Congress declined to plus up non-defense spending.

But crudely, the Pentagon gets more money than it needs without even asking.

Meanwhile, parents who could use that expanded child tax credit?

Sorry, you're out of luck.

This is on point.

I'm Megna Chakrabardi.

Back in September of 2021, we did a show trying to understand how money works in the Pentagon.

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