[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1715-S1716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             DEFENSE BUDGET

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I am down here today to talk about 
something that I have talked about many times before, and that is the 
need to have a strong defense budget so we can deter our adversaries.
  You know, it is not like it used to be in the old days. It is for 
real. These guys--China, for example, is in a position they have never 
been in before. I think it is important that we talk about this budget 
that is coming up again. It is more important now than ever.
  Over the past few weeks, the Senate Armed Services Committee has been 
having hearings in which we have heard from top military leaders, 
defense experts, and Pentagon officials. What we have heard has been 
grim.
  LTG H.R. McMaster told us that since the 1990s, China has undertaken 
the ``largest peacetime military buildup in history.''
  Admiral Davidson, who leads the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said, ``I 
think our conventional deterrent is actually eroding in the region.''
  Last week, Admiral Faller, who leads the U.S. Southern Command, said, 
``Now more than ever, I feel a sense of urgency about global threats we 
face in our neighborhood.''
  Now, I agree. I thought the Cold War was bad, but the threats we are 
facing now, especially from China, are more complex and more dangerous 
than they ever have been before. In fact, I look back sometimes 
wistfully at the days of the Cold War when things were predictable. We 
had two superpowers. We knew what they had; they knew what we had. 
Mutual assured destruction meant something. It really doesn't anymore. 
Times have changed. I agree that the Cold War was bad, but it is worse 
today.
  I am glad to hear President Biden and members of his administration 
say that China is our top pacing threat. Both Secretary Austin and 
Deputy Secretary Hicks told the Armed Services Committee during their 
nomination hearings that was the situation.
  What concerns me is, I haven't seen the Biden administration take any 
action that backs up these words. Instead, we are hearing rumors that 
the Biden administration is considering a flat defense budget, which is 
actually a 2-percent cut when you adjust for inflation. At the same 
time, China is increasing theirs by 6.8 percent.
  It kind of reminds me of the last 5 years of the Obama-Biden 
administration. That would have been from 2010 to 2015. During that 5-
year period, the budget for the military was reduced by 25 percent. At 
the same time that it

[[Page S1716]]

was reduced by 25 percent, China was increasing theirs by 83 percent. 
This was happening out in the real world. People are not aware of this.
  This sort of thing tells me that the administration isn't serious 
about pushing back on China. And do you know what? It also tells China 
the same thing. So talk is cheap, but defending our country is not.
  If we really want to send the right signal to Beijing--a signal that 
says you can't ever win against us--we need sustained investment in our 
defense.
  We have seen what happens when we cut defense spending before. Look 
no further than the Obama administration's 25 percent cut over 5 years. 
If we had just increased defense spending with the rate of inflation 
over the past decade, we could have invested another $400 billion in 
modernizing our military--money we wouldn't have to spend today. 
Instead, we are playing catchup with China, which added at least $200 
billion that we know of--we never know for sure with China--to its 
defense budget over the same time period. Chinese military 
modernization has been nothing short of astonishing. Their ability to 
move fast and increase production rates is leaving us back in the dust.
  We have invested heavily in the advanced capabilities we know we 
need, like hypersonic weapons, biotechnology, and quantum computing.
  We are already spreading our military too thin. Our servicemembers 
have been asked to do too much with too little for too long.
  But we know how we can put our military on a better track. We have a 
blueprint--the 2018 National Defense Strategy. This strategy actually 
has been very effective. It was put together back in 2018 by six 
Democrats and six Republicans, and they all had expertise in the area, 
where it has not been questioned. So we actually have a document here 
that shows us what we can do.
  If we had increased--the Chinese military modernization has been 
nothing short of astounding. Their ability to move fast and increase 
production rates is leaving us in the dust.
  Here we have something that we can follow, and it has been successful 
so far. We have all agreed that this is what we should be doing, but we 
have not been doing it successfully. We know the strategy is right when 
it comes to priorities and the long-term nature of this competition. 
Secretary Austin and Secretary Hicks said as much in our committee 
hearings.
  So why are they talking about adding more missions, including the 
Department's role in climate change and pandemic response and not 
countering China?
  So we know what the strategy needs to be, and that tells us what the 
demands on our force look like. Those demands keep growing. Now we need 
to mesh the budget with the strategy. We know what it looks like, and 
that is at least a 3- to 5-percent real growth above inflation.
  Now, that is what was determined some time ago, in 2018, and that is 
what we really need to be doing, but we are not doing it. And yet we 
know what should be done.
  So, you know, this is a new administration, and I am going to do all 
I can. I have already met with the President, with the administration. 
I know that they are concerned, but we are going to have to get down 
and actually get it done. It means, in real dollars, an increase of at 
least $75 to $125 billion each year. Now, that would be if we stuck 
with the 3- to 5-percent increase that is predicted as being necessary 
in this book. This kind of investment for 5 years in a row would 
completely close the difference between U.S. and Chinese defense 
spending.
  And what does the investment get us? It allows us to keep our 
commitment to our servicemembers to not only take care of them and 
their families but also to give them the tools and training to do their 
jobs.
  You know, often, we hear about the fact that we are spending too much 
on the military. We talk about that we spend more on the military than 
both China and Russia put together. But there is a reason for that. The 
most expensive line that we have in our military is taking care of the 
troops, their families. You know, in the communist countries, they 
don't have to do that. They give them the guns; they go out and kill 
people. They don't have to spend the money that we do. But we do it, 
and we do it right. But we need to continue to increase so we can get 
dug out of the hole that we have dug over decades of insufficient 
funding and overuse of the force. The bills have been piling up for 
years. This is a down payment to get the U.S. military healthy for 
decades of strategic competition.
  Now, I am hesitant to even entertain this idea, but I think it is 
important to talk about it. I know that there are some out there who 
would like to see the President go even further and cut defense 
spending by 10 percent. This is wrong, and Congress has already flat 
rejected it on a bipartisan basis last year. In the Senate it was 
defeated by 77 to 23. Even in the Democrat-led House, it was defeated 
on a 3-to-1 margin.
  Now, take it from the President's own Deputy Secretary of Defense, 
Kath Hicks, who wrote that a 10-percent cut would turn the United 
States into a regional power, increase nuclear proliferation, and 
weaken our allies. This is completely opposite of everything President 
Biden says he wants to do. It would preemptively surrender the 21st 
century to the Chinese Communist Party.
  A strong defense budget is the first step. It underpins all of our 
efforts when it comes to diplomacy, the economy, and technology.
  Is China going to slow its military investments any time soon? No, it 
is not. In fact, we know their actual level of spending is a lot larger 
than it looks. Economics, yes, but the Chinese Communist Party also 
lies about its military budget--no surprise. We know that they lied 
about COVID-19, and they continue to lie about their human rights 
atrocities against the Uighurs.
  So if we don't properly resource our military and put our right 
forces in the right place at the right time with the right staff, we 
are going to fall further behind.
  So it is kind of early right now, and this is the time, though, that 
we need to be talking about it immediately to be preparing for the 
future.
  The bipartisan 2018 NDS Commission report already said the U.S. 
military could very well lose the next state-on-state war it fights.
  We need the Biden administration to lead here--to walk the walk and 
not just talk the talk when it comes to China. And if the Biden team 
won't lead, I will make sure that we use our role in Congress to send 
the message.
  It is not just Beijing that needs to see that we are serious, but our 
allies and our partners need to see this as well.
  The best signal we can send is a strong defense budget topline. This 
can't simply wait any longer. This is common sense, and this is 
something, I think, that we will, on a bipartisan basis, recognize that 
we need to do and prepare for immediately. That is what we intend to 
do, and that is what is expected of us at this time.
  With that, I will yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  (Mr. HICKENLOOPER assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. KING. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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