Defense Spending

Varying perspective on Military Spending Laws
It is the responsibility of the National Security Authorization Act to determine the spending and budget for the United States defense forces. Over the years, the bill has actively supported an improvement in the budget for protection to meet the emerging security challenges around the world. President Trump, for example, introduced a proposal for 2018 that could raise the military budget by ten percent and slash budget spending for virtually all departments. Many members of Congress have endorsed this plan. This spending increase has been opposed to by most Republicans in Congress.
President’s View
President Trump’s 2018 budget has proposed a defense budget increase. President Trump has for a long time stated that he aims to rebuild the armed forces. This proposed budget by President Trump’s proposal will be the 9th biggest expansion in the last four decades. The predecessor President Obama’s defense spending was a little bit more, but not much. His budget for the military remained low in his eight years duration in office.

The Courts Take

Members of the judiciary remain divided on the matter. Some of them feel the increased budget spending is desirable while some feel that it will overburden the taxpayer. Some members feel that tax cut must be across the board. In this case, the department of justice budget was $27.7 which was a decrease by $1.1 trillion (Gregory Krieg and Will Mullery, 2017).

Mainstream Parties

The Democratic Party does not support the military spending, and the party supports budgetary decision that cut across the board. They, therefore, advocate for a budget cut across the board as a mean of relief. On the other had the Democratic Party has supported this move as it will increase national security since the defense units will be strengthened.

Groups Working the Budget

The various groups have shown a mixed reaction to the increase in military spending. Some members are of the opinion that it will overburden the taxpayers who are currently facing hard economic burden. While those groups that support the increased defense spending are of the view that the current technological advancements require military upgrade and thus that increment is justified (Keck, n.d.).

Public Opinion on Military Spending

The citizen’s remains split on the military spending. The view on the size of defense size of government budget on defense has been fluctuating greatly over the years, but most people are of the view that the government spends too much money. Other citizens are of the opinion that America militarily is not strong enough and thus the increased military spending is justified.

The Media Coverage of Defense Spending

The media has widely covered the issue of military spending that was proposed by President Trump. The media has compared the budget to other budgets presented before and has concluded that this will be the highest budget in last four decades. The media also analyses the budget spending regarding the impact on the economy; this has been covered by the use of various economists. The media also breaks down the budget figures to give the people a chance to see the actual expenditures in the smallest departments.

Enacted Policies

The president has already sent the budget proposals to the Congress where it will be debated and passed. So as to get the funds to finance this budget, the president has but in place the various measure that will cut expenditure on certain programs that include disability payments, food stamps, and Medicaid. The government also aims to tighten the work requirements so that millions of people are eliminated from the government support programs (Davis, 2017).

References

Davis, J. (2017). Trump’s Budget Cuts Deeply Into Medicaid and Anti-Poverty Efforts. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 23 June 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/us/politics/trump-budget-cuts.html

Gregory Krieg and Will Mullery, C. (2017). Trump’s budget by the numbers: What gets cut and why. CNN. Retrieved 23 June 2017, from http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/23/politics/trump-budget-cuts-programs/index.html

Keck, T. Will Donald Trump Break Political Time? Or, Is President Trump More Like Victor Orbbn or Franklin Pierce?. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2950015