[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 5, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3967-S3968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           National Security

  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President and my colleagues, for too long, political 
leaders have shied away from being honest and having a difficult 
conversation with the American people about our national security. 
Elected officials have kicked the can down the road, failing to tell 
the country just how dangerous the world has become. It is past time to 
confront this issue.
  Many Americans do not know that the safety we enjoy has been secured 
by a global network of U.S. military bases, diplomatic efforts, and 
international coalitions, as well as massive amounts of equipment and 
ammunition. We have taken our security for granted, not knowing that 
much of it has been enabled by a previous once-in-a-generation 
investment made decades ago.
  President Ronald Reagan led Congress to rebuild the U.S. military in 
the 1980s. I will hasten to add that it was a bipartisan Congress who 
joined President Reagan in this effort. Americans have been living off 
that investment ever since.
  Because of those efforts, we have rested easy under the umbrella of 
overwhelming military superiority. Today, though, our military streak 
is diminishing to dangerous lows--dangerous lows. That umbrella of 
security has become a false sense of security. The U.S. Navy is the 
smallest and oldest it has been in over eight decades--80 years. Our 
Air Force is shrinking. Much of our military infrastructure is out of 
date.
  This is a fact, and it is no secret. Time and again, U.S. military 
leadership comes before Congress and tells us we are facing the most 
dangerous security environment since at least the Cold War, if not 
since World War II.
  Most Americans don't know that we are long overdue for a generational 
replenishment of our weaponry. We have delayed updating our military 
even as China has gotten closer and closer to matching our military 
might. The news gets even worse: China is actually multiplying its 
strength by spearheading a new axis of aggression, joined by Russia, 
Iran, and North Korea. So far, China has not moved against us because 
its dictator, Xi Jinping, knew he would lose, but just over the 
horizon, he might have reason to feel differently.
  We in Congress must tell the American people what is at stake. 
Failing to deter China would immediately trigger a global economic 
depression. Losing to Beijing would extend the hardship, darkening the 
course of the entire 21st century. I am not trying to be alarmist, but 
we need to be honest.
  This bleak future is possible but not inevitable. I recently 
introduced a detailed plan to rebuild American military might and 
restore our ability to deter threats. It would be a downpayment for our 
future. It would be expensive--many worthwhile things are expensive--
but it would be far less costly than war.
  Political neglect has put us in this vulnerable position. It does not 
have to be this way. My goal is to launch a much needed conversation 
about how we can turn the page on that complacency and to get started 
right away with corrective action. I have been inviting my colleagues 
on both sides of the aisle to join in this discussion. I will continue 
to extend that invitation. But there is really no time to waste. We 
need to get started this year. We can do so next week when the Armed 
Services Committee in the Senate begins the NDAA markup, the National 
Defense Authorization Act. During our meetings, I will introduce an 
amendment to raise the level of this year's defense investment 
significantly. My amendment will be an opportunity for the kind of 
debate for which this Chamber is renowned.
  In considering national spending priorities, we have thought of 
ourselves as hamstrung by spending caps, but we simply have to dream 
bigger when it comes to our vital national security. I hope this debate 
will lead to a defense topline number that meets the moment.
  President Reagan's buildup kept the peace and won the Cold War, and 
it did so without firing a shot. The future can be just as peaceful and 
secure for our children and our grandchildren, but it is time we made 
that investment in the future.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, I want to say 
to the Senator from Mississippi how proud I am to stand here beside him 
as he delivers an inconvenient truth, which is, our national security 
is not something we can take for granted. You pay for it with your 
treasure or your blood. That is an inconvenient truth.
  In the course of our Nation's history, we remain the beacon of 
freedom, opportunity, liberty, and prosperity for the world, but we 
cannot take that for granted because we see everywhere we look rising 
threats and challenges to

[[Page S3968]]

America's leadership role in the world. Whether it is in Europe, 
whether it is in Asia, whether it is in the Middle East, the threats 
and the challenges go on and on.
  What emboldens our adversaries is when they believe that we lack the 
resolve and commitment to do what is necessary to preserve the peace. 
The way you preserve the peace is to make sure none of your adversaries 
want to take a chance to engage with you militarily because they know 
they will lose. That is what deterrence is all about.
  I think the Senator from Mississippi has hopefully started a really 
critical discussion at a critical time when we sort of lurch back and 
forth between continuing resolutions and an appropriations process that 
is fundamentally broken; when, in fact, the money we appropriate 
through that process is only about one-third of the money the Federal 
Government spends. The Federal Government spends trillions of dollars 
more on mandatory programs and through the Tax Code. We need to look at 
all of that spending, and we need to rightsize our commitment to what 
should be our No. 1 priority, which is the safety and security of the 
American people and our way of life, and to figure out what that means 
in terms of where the Federal Government spends money elsewhere.
  And it is a very, very important debate. We shouldn't be afraid of 
it. Nobody is talking about touching Social Security or Medicare.
  Both President Biden and President Trump has said no matter what the 
outcome of the election is, neither one of them want to touch it. We 
could argue the merits of that. Certainly, those debates won't occur 
without bipartisan leadership, like Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan, but 
in the absence of our addressing those challenges, certainly there are 
other mandatory spending programs, which are essentially on autopilot, 
that grow at 7 or 8 percent a year that we can look at and say: Does 
this still make sense?
  Maybe it made sense 10 or 20 years ago when that program was created, 
but maybe we ought to look at indexing the amount of money that we 
spend to inflation, rather than just have an open-ended entitlement.
  And then there is the Tax Code. I know next year we are going to be 
looking at the expiration of the individual tax rates of the Tax Cuts 
and Jobs Act.
  President Biden has said that he is happy to have those expire, which 
would result in a tax increase for 62 percent of American taxpayers and 
a $3 trillion tax increase. I know his staff came back later and said: 
No, no, no. He is not for raising taxes on anybody who makes less than 
$400,000 a year, but that is not what would happen if you let these tax 
rates expire next year.
  So we are on the precipice, I hope, of having a fundamental debate 
and decision about the future of our country, and it starts with a 
discussion about America's leadership role in maintaining the peace 
because there is no other country in the world that can fill that gap. 
And we know that if that gap is created, that it will be filled likely 
by the Vladimir Putins, the President Xis in China, or the mullahs in 
Tehran, and people like Kim Jong Un in North Korea.
  So I will just conclude now by saying I am really profoundly grateful 
to our friend from Mississippi for having the courage and demonstrating 
the leadership to initiate this discussion. It could not be more 
important, and it could not be more urgent.