{"id":550767,"date":"2021-06-03T11:36:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T15:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=550767"},"modified":"2021-06-03T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T15:36:19","slug":"defense-is-not-a-biden-administration-priority-defense-experts-examine-bidens-focus-shifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/defense-is-not-a-biden-administration-priority-defense-experts-examine-bidens-focus-shifting\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Defense Is Not A Biden Administration Priority\u2019: Defense Experts Examine Biden\u2019s Focus Shifting"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdefense-is-not-a-biden-administration-priority-defense-experts-examine-bidens-focus-shifting%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=550767&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Biden-5-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Speaking on a panel hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, one defense expert stated that the Biden administration had apparently decided that national defense should take a back seat to other domestic issues, asserting, \u201cDefense is not a Biden administration priority.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with host Mackenzie Eaglen of AEI, former Acting Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller Elaine McCusker said bluntly, \u201cDefense is not a Biden administration priority, and there is an attempt to redesign what constitutes a national security investment, to divert defense funds to non-Corps activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy do I say this?\u201d she continued. \u201cWe got previews of this fact with the international security guidance earlier this year, which actually didn\u2019t terribly focus on defense; and in early April, with the discretionary budget top-lines. For example, the OMB press release did not even mention defense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Citing statistics to show the direction the Biden administration was taking, she said. \u201cAnd defense was the only federal function to not even keep pace with inflation. While domestic agencies went up by 16%, including a 41% increase for the Department of Education, also of note, the only federal agency to take a cut, at 10% was the Corps of Engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis fact was further confirmed on Friday with the White House budget summary that mentions no actual military capabilities,\u201d she pressed. \u201cAmong the investments discussed under the heading, \u2018Confronting 21<sup>st\u00a0<\/sup>Century Security Challenges\u2019 are COVID, foreign assistance, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, and establishing a global health security agenda, among other topics. When the summary touches briefly on the China threat and the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, it notes the importance of cybersecurity, but highlights none of the myriad investments required to compete militarily with China.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Retired Army Major John Ferrari pointed out that another \u201cdanger\u201d lurked for the defense budget. Ferrari stated: \u201cI think there\u2019s a hidden danger in the defense budget that we really have to talk about going forward and now and that\u2019s inflation. Inflation is the hidden danger that will eat the defense budget. Recently, the I savings bond, the inflation index savings bond, is now yielding 3.5%. If that\u2019s in anticipation of inflation of 3.5% the Department is in a lot of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was surprised the most by how the Navy and the administration walked away from what at the end of the Trump administration was a big rollout of the 500-ship autonomous Navy,\u201d Ferrari added.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2021\/06\/01\/analyst-says-pentagon-walked-away-from-the-500-ship-navy\">USNI<\/a> noted, \u201cThe Fiscal Year 2022 shipbuilding request is seeking $22.6 billion, a 3 percent drop from Fiscal Year\u2019s 2021 shipbuilding total.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Air Force is cutting 201 aircraft, including 42 A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, 48 F-15C\/D Eagle strike fighters and 47 F-16 Falcons for $1.37 billion,\u201d USNI <a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2021\/05\/28\/715b-fy22-defense-budget-cuts-2-8b-in-legacy-systems-reduces-troop-strength\">pointed out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div readability=\"16.881395348837\">\n<blockquote readability=\"15\">\n<p><em>The new Pentagon leadership should be aware of and guard against two previous failed approaches to budget reductions: seeing the world as we want to be, not how it is (i.e. the \u201cpeace dividend\u201d), and forcing a choice between capacity and capability (I.e. the \u201cdrawdown\u201d).\u00a0 The first failed approach is to mischaracterize the near-term threat, enabling apparently riskless decisions to cut current readiness. We know this approach, previously called a peace dividend, creates only cognitive dissonance between strategy and budget. Russia, the Middle East, North Korea and an aggressive China will not sit by while we assume away near-term risk.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking on a panel hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, one defense expert stated that the Biden administration had apparently decided that national defense should take a back seat to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279057,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Biden-5-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Defense Is Not A Biden Administration Priority\u2019: Defense Experts Examine Biden\u2019s Focus Shifting","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Biden-5-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Defense Is Not A Biden Administration Priority\u2019: Defense Experts Examine Biden\u2019s Focus Shifting","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}