According to information released by the White House on Thursday, US President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget would increase military spending to a record $842 billion. The United States already spends more on defense than the next nine countries combined.
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According to a White House statement, the budget will include a $9.1 billion investment in the Pentagon’s Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which aims to increase the United States’ presence in the Pacific region as a counter to China. Another $37.7 billion will be spent on modernizing the US nuclear arsenal, while an unknown amount will be spent on shipbuilding and investments in “key technologies.”
According to a separate White House statement, Biden’s budget will include $6 billion for Ukraine, though it is unclear from which government department this will come. The statement on military spending only makes a passing reference to “support for Ukraine.”
While no further details have been released, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated in a statement that the total cost will be $842 billion. This represents a $26 billion increase over last year and a nearly $100 billion increase over 2021.
It is unclear which areas of the military have been targeted for budget cuts. The budget will also most likely be rewritten several times in the coming months, as it must be approved by both the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Neither side has expressed opposition to the increase in military spending, though House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has promised to cut $130 billion from the federal budget in order to reduce the US’ $31 trillion national debt.
According to the most recent figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States spent more on its military in 2021 than the next nine nations combined. The institute counts the US military budget for 2022 as spending for 2021.
Despite the military budget increasing every year since 2015 and more than doubling since 2002, the institute found that successive US administrations cut funding for arms procurement by 6.4% between 2012 and 2021, and 5.4% between 2020 and 2021. The consequences of this can be seen in recent reports highlighting how the United States’ effort to arm Ukraine has depleted domestic stockpiles.
