GOP Senators Slam House GOP for Inadequate Defense Spending in Debt Bill

Several Republican senators are criticizing their counterparts in the House of Representatives for including provisions to cap defense spending in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, a bill to raise the nation’s debt ceiling that passed the House on Wednesday.

The bill places a limit of $886.3 billion on defense spending in the 2024 fiscal year and an $895.2 billion limit in the 2025 fiscal year, the latter being a 1% growth over the former. Republican senators have lambasted the caps, arguing in strong language that they are insufficient and questioning the wisdom of House Republican negotiators.

“This is one of the most ill-conceived ideas for national defense I’ve seen since the 2011 sequestration,” said Republican Sen. 👤Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who claimed that defense spending should increase at the rate of inflation, 4.9%, instead. “The people who negotiated this, I wouldn’t let them buy me a car.”

In remarks on the Senate floor, Graham later lamented that “We’re going to cap spending at a level we cannot expand the Navy, in the same period of time that China’s going from 310 ships to 440. There’s less money for the Marines, for the Army, at a time of great conflict.” He also criticized the bill for not including funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also said that the bill’s defense caps were “the worst part of the deal” in comments