House veterans: Reducing the national debt has bipartisan support
Congressmen Cory Mills, R-Fla., and Seth Moulton, D-Mass., joined “Fox News Sunday” to discuss future U.S. payments to Ukraine, balancing military spending with the national debt and the Pentagon failed to conduct its seventh consecutive audit.
The House voted in favor his annual defense bill Wednesday, adding another $1 trillion to the $36 trillion national debt.
The 1,800-page bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), spells out how $895.2 billion allocated for defense and national security will be spent.
On Wednesday, the bill passed by a vote of 281 to 140, with 16 Republicans voting against. Only 81 Democrats voted yes, while 124 voted no.
The legislation now goes to the Senate for passage before heading to President Biden’s desk for his signature.
The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it flies over Washington on March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The bill comes at a time when the U.S. national debt continues to rise at a rapid pace and shows no signs of slowing.
On December 11, the national debt, which measures what the US owes its creditors, fell to $36,163,442,396,226.61, according to the latest figures released by the US Treasury Department. The debt represents a decrease of $8.8 billion from the figure released the previous day.
By comparison, forty years ago the national debt hovered around $907 billion.
PENTAGON ANNOUNCES NEW COUNTER-DRONE STRATEGY AS UNMANNED ATTACKS ON US INTERESTS ARE UP
The United States Capitol in Washington DC, December 2, 2024. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The latest findings from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that the national debt will grow to an astonishing $54 trillion over the next decade, due to an aging population and rising federal health care costs. Higher interest rates also exacerbate the pain of higher debt.
If that debt materializes, it could jeopardize America’s economic position in the world.
The spike in national debt follows a burst of spending President Biden and Democratic lawmakers.
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), Biden had already approved about $4.8 trillion in loans as of September 2022, including $1.85 trillion for a COVID relief measure called the American Rescue Plan and $370 billion for the bipartisan infrastructure law. a group that advocates reducing the budget deficit.
HERE’S WHO IS FIGHTING FOR POWER IN SYRIA AFTER THE FALL OF BASHAR AL-ASSAD
President Biden visits members of the 82nd Airborne Division at the G2A Arena on March 25, 2022 in Jasionka, Poland. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
While that is about half of the $7.5 trillion that President-elect Trump added to the budget deficit during his time in office, it is far more than the $2.5 trillion that Trump approved at the same time during his first term.
Biden has repeatedly defended his administration’s spending and boasted about cutting the budget deficit by $1.7 trillion.
“I want to note, by the way, in my first two years, I reduced the debt by $1.7 trillion. No president has ever done that,” Biden said recently.
However, that figure refers to a reduction in the national deficit between the fiscal years 2020 and 2022. The deficit certainly shrank during that period, although this was largely because emergency measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic had ended.
A transgender rights advocate takes part in a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court. (Getty Images)
Despite adding to the national debt, the NDAA was strongly bipartisan, but some Democratic lawmakers opposed including a ban on transgender medical treatment for children of military members if such treatment could lead to sterilization.
The bill also included a 14.5% pay increase for junior service members and a 4.5% increase for others, as key to improving the quality of life for those serving in the military.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The defense law also includes strengthening measures deterrence against China and calls for an investment of $15.6 billion to strengthen military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region. The Biden administration had only requested about $10 billion.
Eric Revell and Morgan Phillips of Fox News, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
