More Defense Spending Without Cuts?

You know, I think Operation Epic Fury has exposed what I've been worried about for far too long

through

my work at AEI and what the data shows, which is that we essentially have a one more military.

Iran isn't that capable.

We were told they were a middle power.

I'm not really sure what that means, but we are having a difficult time militarily achieving the political objectives that the president has laid out for Operation Epic Fury.

So there's been a generation of challenges confronting the Defense Department and the profession of arms, and they're all exposed right now in real time.

So there's no, there shouldn't be I mean, Congress has proven to be less helpful than I would have hoped in the middle of a named, prolonged, pretty violent military operation.

So the urgency is real and the need for the funds are significant.

And this is bigger.

I understand we're not talking specifically about money for an emergency supplemental or something like that for Epic Fury, but that we were speaking broadly about the need for a generational one-time investment that President Trump has asked for in his 2027 defense budget request.

And that's also necessary.

Both are actually necessary because money's getting shifted around constantly.

You know, while they might be three different requests, Epic Fury, 27 reconciliation, 27 base budget, the way the dollars actually move around in defense is that right now, because Congress has been unable to pass 27 appropriations on time into law, the funds are all getting mangled and shifted and nothing's actually working at its peak optimization.

And so the point of the one-time mandatory spending for defense is terrific, actually.

The money works differently.

It works more like it does for other federal agencies.

The Defense Department is held to different sets of rules for spending than other feds

and other

buckets of money, whether that's discretionary or mandatory.

And so in this case, what One-time infusion does is it jumpstarts necessary investments that have been kicked.

The can has been kicked down the road, like I mentioned, for 20 plus, you could argue 35 years now.

And all the bills are coming due at the same time.

Machines age out at the rate you purchase them.

And you can extend them and you can put Band-Aids on them.