Article

The Ballooning Biden Defense Budget

Lawrence J. Korb and Kaveh Toofan write about President Biden's first defense budget.

President Joe Biden once famously said, “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” Determining the size and distribution of the annual defense budget is one of the most important decisions the administration and Congress make each year. Despite the many differences between the two administrations, Biden’s proposed FY2022 defense budget of $753 billion essentially embraced the massive defense spending increases seen under former President Donald Trump – and has drawn criticism as a result. There is a different bipartisan path ahead – involving cutting unnecessary spending and addressing waste and mismanagement – if the administration wants to take it.

The above excerpt was originally published in Just Security. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Lawrence J. Korb

Former Senior Fellow

Kaveh Toofan

Former Policy Coordinator