Mac Thornberry says Trump military budget proposal falls short

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday President Trump’s budget proposal for rebuilding the military falls short, joining a growing number of lawmakers who have panned the plan.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, Texas Republican, said he hopes the Trump administration will be open to increase the $603 billion proposal it put forward to $640 billion.

“I really have no doubt that the president is committed to rebuilding the military,” Mr. Thornberry said.

“Whether he has personally had the chance to dig down into the details of what that requires, I don’t know,” he said. “Do people at the White House understand how much damage has been done over the past several years? I don’t know. But, you know, that is part of our job as an independent branch of government to understand that and to try to convey that. That is why this is a continuing conversation.”

His counterpart on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has aired similar concerns, arguing the federal government must invest more in defense.

Mr. Thornberry said he wants a $91 billion increase in military spending over the 2018 spending caps. He said a wide range of House Republicans want to repeal the current $549 cap on defense spending — though it remains to be seen whether there is a way forward with Democrats, who want more spending for domestic discretionary programs.

Mr. Trump proposed a federal budget this week that increases military spending by $54 billion and offsets that spending with money coming from cuts to domestic spending programs. It also slashes foreign aid.

The proposal did not deal with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which account for about 60 percent of the total budget and are the biggest drivers of federal spending.

In his joint address to congress on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said, “our military will be given the resources its brave warriors so richly deserve” and to work with both parties to “rebuild our military.”

“I am sending Congress a budget that rebuilds the military, eliminates the defense sequester and calls for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history,” Mr. Trump said.

Members of both parties have raised objections to the budget plan.

“The president has a saying ’all talk, no action,’” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Wednesday. “This budget is ’all talk and no action’ when it comes to long-term indebtedness.”

Mr. Graham said the rising costs of entitlement programs are crowding other programs.

“Until you put entitlement reform on the table, then all these budget proposals are just gimmicks,” he said.

Mr. Thornberry also said lawmakers should deal with entitlement spending.

“Can you fix our budget problems without dealing with mandatory spending? Of course not,” he said. “We are going to have to deal with that. But the key I guess I’d leave you with is we cannot wait to fix our airplanes and to have ships able to sail until we get our budget in order. The world is too dangerous and moving too fast.”