Senators Jim Inhofe and Richard Shelby - the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee and the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee - said on Wednesday that they seek to ensure increases in US military spending under the Biden administration in order to prevent China from attaining global hegemony
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2021) Senators Jim Inhofe and Richard Shelby - the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee and the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee - said on Wednesday that they seek to ensure increases in US military spending under the Biden administration in order to prevent China from attaining global hegemony.
"China is our nation's top threat, and the Chinese Communist Party is investing in the People's Liberation Army at record rates," Inhofe and Shelby said in a press release. "In our efforts to counter China's quest for global hegemony, it would be shortsighted to ramp up our domestic investments in technology without also increasing defense spending and leveraging our expansive defense research and development enterprise."
The senators introduced an amendment to the US Innovation and Competitiveness Act, which would provide dollar-for-dollar parity between increases in defense spending and non-defense spending, the release said.
President Joe Biden's 2022 defense budget proposal asks Congress to approve $753 billion in spending for the Defense Department and other national security programs. Meanwhile, Biden has proposed raising corporate taxes from the current 21 percent to 28 percent to fund a $2.3 trillion infrastructure program.
The 2021 defense policy bill authorized during the Trump-era provided $740.5 billion for the Defense Department and other national security tasks. However, ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee said Biden's budget should be at least about $763 billion due to inflation.
The White House previously said $715 billion in the Biden administration's total 2022 budget proposal would be allocated in baseline funding for the Defense Department with a focus on deterring China and Russia.
