The bill contemplates a slight decrease in spending for programs funded by Congress in areas other than national defense, such as health, education, and environmental protection; and includes a 3% increase in defense funds, below the current inflation level.
One of the most forceful Republican senators in his rejection of the defense cut draft was South Carolina lawmaker Lindsey Graham, who criticized his fellow House party members and McCarthy.
“To my colleagues in the House (of Representatives), I can’t believe you have done this,” Graham said in his speech on the floor this Thursday.
And addressing McCarthy, he added: “I know you have a hard job, I like you, but Ronald Reagan’s party is dying, don’t tell me that the defense budget, which is $42 billion below inflation, finances totally the Armed Forces”, he lamented.
The veteran senator has threatened to block a full vote on the measure unless he is given guarantees that defense spending can be increased.
Along with Graham, other conservative senators expressed themselves in a similar way: In fact, Rep. Tom Cotton, who represents Arkansas, introduced an amendment to increase defense funding in the bill to raise the debt.
“The budget should not shape our defense needs,” Cotton warned, who considered that those needs should be the ones that shape the budget.
The US is facing default on its debt on June 5, the date set by the Treasury Department, if it does not first approve the bill to raise the limit of the money that the country can request to meet its financial obligations.
If approved, the legislative initiative would suspend the current debt limit of $31.4 trillion until January 1, 2025.
The leader of the Democratic majority in the Lower House, Chuck Schumer, had promised this Thursday to expedite the processing of the draft and affirmed that the chamber would remain in session until this project was approved.
In this sense, he warned that any “unnecessary delay” would be “an unnecessary and even dangerous risk” for the country.
However, Graham made it clear that he is going to try to slow the process down.
“Our Armed Forces are weakening daily, this budget that we are about to approve makes all the problems worse,” he considered. “I want to end the war in Ukraine defeating (Vladimir) Putin, if you don’t want it, he will continue.”
“And we are going to have a conflict between NATO and Russia, and our troops will end up involved if they don’t send a clear signal now. China will see this as an opportunity to jump on Taiwan,” said Graham, who encouraged the senators to remain in the chamber the time it takes to reach a defense compromise.