McConnell: Senate Must Not Short-Change American Strength

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently delivered remarks on the Senate floor, regarding defense appropriations.

McConnell was Tuesday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words:

“Today, the Appropriations Committee is considering defense funding for the coming year.

From the outset, colleagues who take seriously our obligation to provide for the common defense knew that they had their work cut out for them.

This spring, the President sent them a fourth straight defense budget request that would cut funding for the national defense after inflation. That request was grossly insufficient when it went to print. And it’s even more so today.

Then, the summer brought our closest allies and partners here to Washington, underscoring the importance of American leadership by example.

And just a few days ago, the final report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy put an even finer point on the stakes of the growing and interconnected threats to our national security.

As I discussed earlier this week, the bipartisan expert panel behind the report delivered a grave warning. Here’s more of what they said:

The U.S. military ‘lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.’

The American public have been ’inadequately informed by government leaders of the threats to U.S. interests—including to people’s everyday lives—and what will be required to restore American global power and leadership.’

They went on further. ‘Very little progress will be possible without Congress, where a relatively small number of elected officials have imposed continual political gamesmanship over thoughtful and responsible legislating and oversight.’

It’s past time to prioritize our national security. This is totally obvious to all of us. This needs to begin.

Just take the pacing threat from China, for example. Plenty of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle like to talk about outcompeting the PRC.

But not as many seem to recognize that winning this competition, preserving American primacy, and protecting America’s interests are first and foremost about investing in hard power.

As the Commission put it, China has ‘largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment. Without significant change by the United States, the balance of power will continue to shift in China’s favor.’

But the vast majority of supposed ‘counter-China’ policies that folks in Washington like to talk about won’t do much to arrest this shift. And neither will pretending that the pacing threat is the only threat we face.

It is naïve to believe we can ignore or assume away threats in other regions. Anyone who believes our security and prosperity don’t require urgent investments in hard power, in alliances and partnerships, and in our defense industrial base… clearly doesn’t know what time it is.

I’m grateful to my friend, Vice Chair Collins, and to colleagues on the committee who recognize the urgency of the task in front of us, for fighting hard to negate as much of the President’s real-dollar cut to national defense as they could.

The bill in committee right now exceeds the President’s request by nearly $19 billion dollars. This is less than the additional $25 billion authorized by the Armed Services Committee.

Senate Democrats refused to spend more on defense without additional funding for non-defense discretionary programs.

However, thanks to our colleagues’ efforts, this bill secures crucial steps forward on a number of urgent priorities.

The bill includes the largest-ever appropriation for shipbuilding, with hundreds of millions in new resources for growing and retaining the critical shipbuilding industrial base.

It tackles maintenance backlogs head-on, and invests in enough spare components to bring 500 more aircraft to full readiness than the President’s request accounts for.

It goes $3 billion dollars beyond his request for overdue investments in expanding the defense industrial base, and provides for modernizing ammunition and vehicle production facilities from Iowa and Missouri to Ohio and Tennessee.

And it delivers important down payments on critical munitions – from the long-range and precision strike capabilities needed in the Indo-Pacific to the naval interceptors required to defend U.S. personnel and global commerce from terrorist attacks in the Red Sea.

But let’s be absolutely clear: When it comes to rebuilding our stockpiles and preparing our armed forces to deter and defeat threats, there is much more work to be done.

There is no serious reading of post-World War II history that doesn’t trace the preservation of Western peace or the growth of American prosperity to an order underpinned by American strength.

The U.S. military is the reason our neighbors back home sleep in peace. It’s the reason our communities reap the benefits of global trade. It’s the weight behind our leaders’ words.

We cannot afford to short-change it. And I cannot make the stakes of the task before us any clearer.”

The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7.