WASHINGTON — With the new 118th Congress now up and running, there is new talk of deep budget cuts on the horizon, raising concerns about what awaits the military.
One of the promises that Kevin McCarthy made to secure the House speakership was to cut overall government spending to Fiscal Year 2022 levels, amounting to a more than $100 billion reduction.
It conjures up the dreaded possibility of slashing the Department of Defense as Congress did following the passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011.
Currently, the FY 23 defense budget is $858 billion, a $75 billion increase over the year before.
The additional money has primarily gone to big-ticket weapons programs such as ships, but it also went to the 4.6% raise for troops.
Senate Armed Services Committee member Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said Wednesday he is "very concerned" about the possibility of new, arbitrary defense cuts but doesn't think it will gain traction in the Senate.
Kaine continued: "It is basically bringing sequestration back. And I hope instead of budgeting by a random number, we budget by what the need is."
The White House is opposing any cuts to the military, saying in a statement, "This push to defund our military in the name of politics is senseless and out of line with our national security needs."
Freedom Caucus members and other far-right House Republicans have also complained about the scope of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, which will total more than $45 billion this year.
McCarthy himself has said that his party will not write a "blank check" for Ukraine.
Despite that, Kaine said there is strong bipartisan support in the Senate to support Ukraine.
"We've got to show the world that the world's greatest democracy will not turn a blind eye when another democracy is invaded illegally by an authoritarian nation," he said. "We owe that to Ukraine, who is our ally, but we also owe it to other democracies around the globe."