Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not an excuse to further inflate the US military budget

Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Activists and Candidates, n°152 | 1 April 2022

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Situation

The Biden administration cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a principal justification for proposing to increase military spending by ~$70 billion over FY2021 levels. Members of Congress have invoked the invasion either to defend Biden’s recently-unveiled military budget request, or to argue that his $813.3 billion proposal isn’t nearly big enough.

Throwing money at the problem

The gap between US and Russian military spending over the last decade is more than $6 trillion. This includes the US outspending Russia militarily by a 13-to-1 ratio in 2020; or 18-to-1, if you include the collective military expenditures of the US and its fellow NATO member states.

It’s unclear how investing tens of billions more in widening this discrepancy—as Biden has done and is proposing to do more of—advances US interests (particularly if it’s at the expense of funding climate or Covid programs, which it is). If the US is already outspending Russia militarily 13-to-1, what’s a 14- or 15-to-1 ratio supposed to accomplish?

Russia’s poor performance in Ukraine reveals that the US had greatly overestimated Russia’s military capabilities. Moreover, resolving the conflict and avoiding nuclear escalation will not be achieved by increasing the Pentagon budget. Securing a diplomatic settlement between Ukraine and Russia is the more relevant and responsible policy choice to achieve those objectives.

-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)

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